


Luminescence

by Scribe34



Series: Conquer the Night [10]
Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Main Video Game Series), Pocket Monsters: Sun & Moon | Pokemon Sun & Moon Versions, Pocket Monsters: Ultra Sun & Ultra Moon | Pokemon Ultra Sun & Ultra Moon Versions
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Dissociation, Forgiveness, Friendship, Heavy Angst, Hope, Narcissism, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-12
Updated: 2019-09-12
Packaged: 2020-10-17 03:03:47
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 20,885
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20613899
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Scribe34/pseuds/Scribe34
Summary: Do not go gentle into that good night. Rage, rage, against the dying of the light.—Dylan Thomas,Do not go gentle into that good night.





	Luminescence

**Author's Note:**

> [Content Warning for: tense/creepy environment and situations, violence, animals (Pokémon) attacking people and other animals (Pokémon), abusive character saying abusive things, depiction of panic attack/anxiety, depiction of disassociation, depiction of unstable mental health, depiction of graphic injury and medical treatment, and a LOT of swearing]
> 
> Welcome to the tenth installment of _Conquer the Night!_ If you haven't read parts one through nine this isn't going to make sense as it's an AU. PLEASE click on Conquer the Night to read the series in chronological order.
> 
> Tumblr (ok, fine, BTS stan account): jooniepertree.tumblr.com  
Discord: comment for an invite link so you can hang out with me and other people who like the series!!!!
> 
> Are you ready?

* * * * *

_Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,_

_And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,_

_Do not go gentle into that good night_.

* * * * *

Wind, or something like it, soughed a deep silence in her ears— the kind of silence that was deafeningly loud. Moon knew that there was no air in space, but it sounded like rushing wind anyway.

There was a soft crackle of static in her headset. “Moon? Are you okay?”

Gladion's arms were around her, and all she could hear was the loudest silence as well as quiet breaths. “I'm trying not to think about the fact that we're in space right now.”

“Ultra Space, even.” There was a bit of a smile in his voice. “It's better than regular space. I wonder if there's a Great Space, or a Master Space, or a Dusk Space—”

“Stop,” laughed Moon.

“It's really pretty though.”

“I wouldn't know. I have my eyes closed.”

She felt his hands tighten on her waist; the motion was almost intimate, with Solgaleo bounding smoothly beneath them. “Open them, Moon.”

His voice was so soft, so gentle, that she managed to open her eyes.

“They kept saying ancient pathway,” he continued, “but I didn't think that it would actually _look_ like a pathway.”

Instead of a dark void, which was what she had rather expected, there was light everywhere: rainbowed galaxies that shot past them, or that they shot past; stars that popped into existence and billowed out colorful clouds of sparkling dust. The speed of their journey sent the universe into slow-motion around them. Through one star system, into another; an infinite blur of wild color, heat, and noise.

“It looks like a subway tunnel, like the ones they have in Kanto,” she commented. “Except, you know, colorful and full of lights and sparkles and shit.”

_Pa-pum, pa-pum, pa-pum_. The feet of the red sun pounded gently against swirls of comet-dust, sending stars free-wheeling into the cosmos. Moon could see faint lines around them, lines that determined the curve of the ancient pathway and vaguely resembled the lines that appeared in the pulsing rip of an Ultra Wormhole.

“How long have we been here, do you think?” she wondered.

“Well, we couldn't exactly bring my phone or your Rotom, so I've got no fucking clue. But I don't think time really matters here. When we get to the Ultra Sea, I don't think any time will have passed back home. A couple of minutes, maybe.” He leaned forward, so that every inch of her back was covered by his front; his chin came down to rest on her armored shoulder.

Moon swallowed. “I- I guess that's good.”

“I'm slightly concerned with how we'll know where to go. We can't keep in touch with Phyco or Soliera, and they didn't give us a map or anything... hopefully we'll be able to see Lillie and Lusamine as soon as we stop.”

He sounded worried, so Moon dared to take one hand out of Solgaleo's mane and bring it down to rest on top of one of his. “We'll find them,” she said firmly. “We have to.”

The universe spun and roared around them. Solgaleo roared with it, and a patch of pale, greenish-purple starlight popped into existence ahead of them.

_We are approaching the void_. Solgaleo's voice was conversational, echoing in her mind with the whooshing shriek of the universe. _Exiting the ancient pathways can be rough for riders. You should hang on with both of your hands._

Moon let go of Gladion's hand and laced it back into Solgaleo's mane. The sun roared once more, and they darted into the white cloud.

* * * * *

_Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright_

_Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay_

_Rage, rage, against the dying of the light_.

* * * * *

They burst through the starlight; the red Solgaleo skidded to a halt and Moon slammed into the back of his head, Gladion's weight locking her in place.

“Oof.”

“Sorry.”

_We have arrived_. The Solgaleo sat back on his haunches; suddenly Gladion's weight was gone, and Moon felt herself sliding backwards, landing on something warm and solid. Someone.

“Sorry,” she apologized in turn, rolling off Gladion before getting to her feet.

He coughed. “It's— fine. Don't worry about it.”

In comparison to the pathways of Ultra Space, the Ultra Sea was quite dark. The nickname of “the void” was well deserved. Pallid green and sickly lavender lights shone from warped and twisted-looking trees— huge ones, towering far above them and curling in enormous fractals. Smaller plants dotted the earth around them: transparent grasses, waving in a non-existent current; gray shrub-like objects that looked nastily sharp; and fuzzy blue lichens that seemed to thicken around the edges of the trees.

“This is weird as fuck,” said Gladion finally.

“Hello!”

The voice in her helmet was familiar and chirpy, and from the way Gladion jumped he had also heard it. Moon swallowed.

“Um— is that Lieutenant Zossie?”

“Sure is! You can just call me Zossie, though. Soli says I'm younger than you. Kind of weird, but it's whatever.” She spoke cheerfully, without the formal, solemn inflection that Moon had come to associate with Phyco and Soliera and Ultra Space in general. “The Ultra Sea is close enough to Ultra Megalopolis that I have a pretty clear radio connection with you right now. even without a communicator. You're only about... oh, twenty thousand miles away?”

“Only twenty-thousand miles,” muttered Gladion, almost inaudibly. “The _fuck_.”

“Ooh, _vulgarity_!” Zossie sounded excited. “I studied Terran vulgarity in university, but I didn't think I'd ever get to hear it. Captain Phyco and Soli aren't the type of people to get involved in the slang and profanity of a new language. Anyway, I think I know your names but will you introduce yourselves, just so I can be sure?”

“Yeah, of course. I'm Moon Hawkins.”

“Gladion Mohn.”

“That's what I thought. Pleased to meet you! You already know I'm Lieutenant Zossie but you might also hear Private Dulse speaking. Say hello, Dulse!”

There was a short pause; then a cough. “Hello.”

“Hi,” said Moon. “Um, do you either of you know which way we're supposed to go?”

“Yep! The other human life signals are, ummm— west of your location.”

“Which way is west?”

“Oh, I have no idea. Walk in a straight line for about twenty paces.”

Moon glanced at Gladion, then shrugged and began walking. Zossie was quiet for a few moments, but then she nodded. “Okay, you were walking north. So if you go back and face the same way you just walked, you turn left and walk that way.”

“Awesome, thank you.” Moon turned to look at Solgaleo. “Um, I guess we're going now.”

_I shall stay here_. He regarded them both with oddly gentle eyes. _I must remain near to the door, or it will collapse. I would have taken you closer, but I do not like the stinging sirens_.

“Me neither, dude. Me fucking neither.”

“Hmm?” said Zossie, politely puzzled.

“Oh— I was talking to the Solgaleo, sorry. Or I think I was. I'm not sure if the helmets are broadcasting outside or not.”

_They are not, but I can still hear you_.

Gladion made a face at Moon, slightly distorted by the blue-tinted fiberglass of the helmet; and by unspoken agreement they turned west and began walking. Gladion's hand slipped into Moon's.

“Ah,” said Dulse, his voice smooth but slightly concerned. “Your heartbeats both went momentarily irregular, and have undergone a minimal increase. Did something happen?”

Gladion turned to stare at Moon, wide-eyed; Moon swallowed. “Um— we're holding hands. Should we not do that?”

“Oh. No, that is fine; I will just need to account for it as an acceptable variant.” Moon heard clicking and computer keys— the sound was oddly comforting, when they were essentially walking on a dark, alien ocean floor.

Gladion mouthed something at her through the helmet-glass, which Moon couldn't quite interpret but thought was probably _what the fuck_. She shrugged, shaking her head; Gladion nodded resignedly, and they kept walking.

“About how far is it, to where Lillie and Lusamine are?”

“Ummm—” began Zossie.

“Approximately half a mile,” said Dulse, before she could answer.

“Oh, that's not bad at all. Thanks.”

“You should know, however, that Nihilego have adapted to interfere with our radio technology. They cannot affect the link between your helmets— your proximity is too close for that. But you may hear static when you try to speak with either of us.”

“That is a super scary predation method,” said Moon nervously— but the idea was intriguing. “Like, if someone were out here alone with just radio backup—”

“_Suuuuuper_ not recommended, but we'll humor the speculation,” chuckled Zossie.

“Right. Anyway, the Nihilego would essentially be cutting you off from your backup, right? First they isolate you, and then they hunt you. Kind of neat, in a very creepy way.”

Gladion sighed. “Well, you've just guaranteed that I will not be letting go of your hand for the _entire_ time we're here.”

“I'm not complaining.” She squeezed his hand, turning to smile at him; he blinked, and through the blue glass of the helmet she thought he might have been blushing.

Zossie gasped. “Wait— wait wait wait the nuances are different in Terran but holy blinding light are you _flirting_?”

There was a long pause.

“Yes,” said Moon finally. “That is. A thing we do, sometimes.”

“Aw, lights. I made it awkward, didn't I.”

“Please don't swear on the comms, Lieutenant,” sighed Dulse. “Yes, you made it awkward.”

“Sorry,” said Zossie, though she didn't sound at all sorry. “It's just fascinating to me. Courting is very different in Ultra Megalopolis. Anyway, what do you think of the void?”

“I expected it to be a lot scarier,” said Moon, gratefully seizing on the topic change. “But it's actually really pretty. Kind of creepy, especially the quiet. But also pretty.”

There was a soft, slightly crackling laugh over the comms. “That is how they get you,” said Dulse softly. “Nihilego are pretty, cunning, and vicious. They are not intelligent, but they know how to prey upon weakness. Do not let your guard down, for even a single moment.”

Moon's spine tingled with an icy chill; Gladion's hand tightened around hers and she squeezed him back reassuringly. “We won't.”

“There isn't much time left before you get into Nihilego hunting grounds,” said Zossie. The comm was getting more crackly as she spoke. “One last piece of advice: the Nihilego's danger is that they will enhance your strengths, to the point where they become a weakness. Moon knows what hers is, because she's been poisoned before. Gladion, you'll have to figure it out. And you don't know what the other two humans will have been through.” There was a sharp, jagged sound, before her high voice distorted into something deeper. “On-once you can't hea-ar us, flip-p the vis— helm—”

Her voice faded into static, which in turn became silence as the radio link was cut.

“What was she saying there, at the end?” murmured Gladion, through a thankfully unbroken speaker link.

“I think she said to flip the visor up on our helmets.”

“Our faces will be exposed. Is that really wise?”

“She wouldn't have said anything if she thought we should just leave them.” Moon hesitantly reached up with her free hand, pressing the button that would retract the visor.

The air was dank and oddly warm— thicker than usual, but it wasn't too hard to breathe. Moon had expected it to be cold, because her arms and legs were cold; but that was probably the suit compensating for the outside temperature.

And she could _feel_ them, sneering at the edges of her brain. They sensed her; they knew she was here.

They were approaching.

“Definitely flip your visor up,” Moon murmured. “I don't know if it's because I've been exposed before, but I can sort of— hear them coming? It's in my head, the way Nebby and the Solgaleo talked to us. And Tapu Fini.”

“And Tapu Bulu. For me, anyway.” Gladion reached up and retracted his own visor. “I don't hear anything.”

“It's probably an effect of previous exposure, then.” Moon reached for her belt, pulling the staff-baton from its clip. She would need both hands to extend it to a baton, but she didn't want to let go of Gladion just yet.

“_Ni_...”

The echoey whisper was not just in her head, though she heard it there too; Gladion stopped walking, his hand going to the machete at his hip.

“Go away,” muttered Moon, though she could sense them approaching. “Go away, go away, go away— I don't have fucking _time_ for this, I've got a whole-ass rescue to do.”

“_Le... go..._”

“You're the ones who need to _le_ the fuck _go_.” Gladion snorted next to her; it was a bad pun but she felt better after saying it.

The first one hovered into view, sliding out from behind one of the big trees; it looked like Lillie, which was not surprising because Lillie was the entire reason they were here in the first place. And Lusamine, though neither Moon nor Gladion would have chosen to prioritize her over Lillie. The Nihilego was different from last time, however; the large bulge that had been on its head, resembling Lillie's big white hat, was no longer present; instead two long, thin tendrils like braids swung as it floated closer.

It occurred to Moon that even though they could breathe the thick air they were still, technically, in an ocean. “Hey, do you think the trees are actually coral?” she asked Gladion. “Because we're in an ocean?”

“Probably,” he said, after a few moments. “I don't know if this is the appropriate moment to be thinking abo— _watch out_!”

His tone was sharp and Moon instinctively ducked; she felt a whisper of _foodFoodFOODFoodfood_ as the Nihilego charged her and missed.

“That was weird, it was like a Doppler effect. Like when something is quiet when it's far away and then it gets loud when you're up close and then quiet again.”

“Moon, you're getting distracted. Focus.”

Moon blinked. “I— oh. Oh, yeah. Wow, that's— I really do not like that.”

“Yeah,” murmured Gladion. “Me neither.”

The Nihilego chittered angrily, but this time Moon recognized the thought of “_I wonder how it can still get in my head when Tapu Bulu healed me”_ as a foreign one, a distraction pushed up from the well of questions that always seemed to inhabit her mind.

It swooped again, but this time she was ready. Moon let go of Gladion's hand and twisted the baton-staff, popping it out to full size; she swung it straight at the Nihilego.

She had half thought it would go straight through— Nihilego really did look like a Ghost-type, even though Rotom had told her that his scans suggested it was actually Rock- and Poison-type. But her staff met a solidly fleshy mass, and the Nihilego squealed as it bent around the staff, flying away to slam into a coral-tree with a very solid _thud_.

“_Ni ni ni ni ni ni ni ni ni ni ni_—”

Suddenly a cacophony of whisper-silk cries flooded her ears and her mind; there were Nihilego everywhere, descending upon them from the blackness and popping out from the corals.

“Oh, god— fuck—”

Why was this happening? Did the Nihilego have some sort of hive mind, that when she hit one it hurt all of them? Had they been watching this entire time? What exactly were they made of, that looked like Ghosts and bent like flesh and landed like rock? Had anyone from Ultra Megalopolis ever captured a Nihilego?

“Moon.”

Phyco was fairly pragmatic about Pokémon experimentation, so maybe they'd taken a biopsy or something, trying to determine the genetic content. It would be really cool to see those kinds of files; she would have to ask Dulse about that. Though maybe they were in the Nihilego file that Wicke had sent her back during the first attack. She hadn't read through all of it, because it was a lot of fucking reading. Rotom probably had, but she didn't have Rotom.

“Moon!”

Why _did_ Earth metals disintegrate in the Ultra Sea? The temperature definitely wasn't _that_ high, was it? Maybe it had something to do with the fact that it wasn't really air they were breathing. It was an oxygen-nitrogen mixture, apparently, but the ratios were different than they were on Earth. If it was a higher percentage of oxygen then the metals would oxidize a _lot_ faster, that made sense but then the air should be thinner, not thicker, and that definitely _didn't_ make sense—

Something hard pinched her nose; Moon yelped, blinking hard; frantic green eyes were locked onto hers.

“Moon! Wake up!” said Gladion. He was pretty— god, he was pretty. God, she wanted to kiss him. “Moon, we have to run!”

She was being dragged along, which was fine; she would follow him to the ends of the earth, probably. Hands held tight, close and safe; they'd mentioned discussing _things_ afterward but maybe they could do that now, now seemed like a good time—

Gladion let go of her hand, pushing her down so that she sat hard on the ground; there was a whir of metal-whipping-through-the-air and then a distinct slicing noise; this was followed by a loud, strident shriek that made Moon's nostrils ache.

Food. Wow, she was suddenly _really_ hungry. Phyco and Soliera hadn't let them eat or drink before putting on the suits, because it would be hard to take them off to pee and so on. She could eat an entire pizza. Maybe two pizzas.

A hand wrapped hard around her wrist, yanking her back up; they were running, they were running— the hunger faded—

“Oh my god.”

Gladion glanced back at her. “Are you okay?”

“I don't— I don't know what that was, I just— it wasn't me thinking, it wasn't me. G-Gladion, _it wasn't me_.”

She could feel it lingering, the not-her thoughts; the world spun a little, and she let out a quiet sob before biting down on the sound of it.

They stopped running as Gladion turned to check behind them; but the Nihilego had not followed— still preying on the easy target, the Nihilego that he had killed with his machete, still hanging from one of his hands. The machete dripped with some clear fluid that Moon assumed was probably Nihilego blood.

He wiped the machete on some of the wavy, transparent grass, carefully cleaning it before sheathing it once more. His hand went to his belt, pulling out one of his Pokéballs; a flash of light revealed Eleanor, who looked around for several moments with wide eyes before turning toward Moon and reaching up, pressing paws to her face.

A wave of calm drifted over her— artificial calm, but calm all the same. Moon closed her eyes and breathed, letting go.

“That's it, there you go.” She peeked up at Gladion. His eyes were gentle, even though Moon could hear her own breathing, pounding with her heart in her ears.

“It's not your fault,” he said, placing his hands on her shoulders. Eleanor chirped her agreement. “It's not your fault, Moon. They didn't tell us you might be vulnerable like that.”

“Th-th-they wouldn't have known, nobody except m-me and a couple of people from like, Interpol have ever s-survived a Nihilego attack.” The tears came even though she didn't want them to—the same temperature as the heavy, humid air. “I couldn't do anything, I couldn't s-stop it, I was stuck in my own h-h-head, I—”

“Shh.” He gathered her close, gloved hand brushing gently across her back— the way she had comforted him just before they left the Altar of the Moone. “Moon— s-sunshine.” He stuttered over the endearment, but Moon's heart pounded loudly anyway. “It's okay. At least now we know what to do if we run into any more of them.”

“We c-can't let them touch you. If they touch you, they'll be able to get in your head and you'll be useless like me.”

Gladion sighed. “You're not _useless_, Moon, Arceus.”

“Rio, rio,” scolded Eleanor.

“Sure feels like it."

“What happens, when you're stuck in your head?”

Moon swallowed. “U-um, I get a lot of thoughts,” she mumbled. “At Aether Paradise it was like, connecting things I hadn't thought of before. Like that you and Lillie were related, but I forgot about that. I might have figured Lusamine into that as well, but I don't remember. And I think maybe that thing you told me about the Tapus watching me. Like, why else would Tapu Koko give me a Sparkling Stone in person? Hau got one too, but he got it from Hala like everybody else. I forgot about it until just now, but I remember thinking something about like, destiny.”

“Hala got his from Tapu Koko, didn't he?”

“Yeah, but that seems like a very one-time thing.”

“Maybe you'll be the next kahuna.”

Moon shook her head. “I don't think so. I just— I have a feeling that that isn't it.”

“Hmm. Your intuition is decent, so you're probably right. We'll have to ask Hala about it later, then. What about this time?”

“Um—” The memories were already getting hazy, though a few of them stood out appallingly. Incriminatingly. “Like, the thing about the trees being coral, and then the Doppler effect thing when the Nihilego was rushing at me, I sort of heard it thinking about food but it got really loud just when it missed me. It sounded silly. And I thought maybe they had a hive mind or something, because they all jumped out when I hit the one. And...” She frowned, trying to remember. “Something about why Earth metals break down here. I thought maybe it was a higher oxygen concentration, because that would oxidize the metals. But I think that would make the air thinner, not thicker.”

She definitely was not going to mention the five seconds when she'd been obsessing about how good-looking he was. It was a distraction that they really, _really_ didn't need. Eleanor giggled softly, but didn't give her away.

“There's probably an acidic element in the air. Something that doesn't react to carbon or water, but also doesn't play nicely with metals. It's been a while since I had a chemistry class, so I don't know what it could be.” Gladion drew back, looking down at her. “Are you feeling a little better?”

“I— yeah.” He'd been trying to calm her down by talking science, Moon realized. Combined with Eleanor's soothing aura, it was impressively effective. “Thank you. Thank you both.”

“Lu rio,” murmured Eleanor, smiling shyly as Moon reached out to scratch behind one of her ears.

“It's my pleasure.” His eyes softened. “We can't keep Ellie out of her ball; the Nihilego don't really seem interested in things like battle etiquette and I don't want to put her in danger. So if we run into any more Nihilego, you try and say the things you're thinking out loud, all right?”

“It's going to come out as nonsense,” Moon warned him. “My brain goes a lot faster than my mouth when I'm high on whatever it is they're doing.”

“That doesn't matter. It keeps you present in the moment.” He turned to point off to Moon's right. “We need to go this way— it's still west, and I think we're getting pretty close. And given how long Lillie's been here, without armor, I'm a little concerned about how she's been defending herself from the Nihilego.”

“Oh, god— you have a point, and I don't like it.”

He recalled Eleanor and they set out at a brisk walk westward, hands clasped together. Gladion drew his machete again, and Moon was somehow still hanging onto the staff. She shortened it to a baton again, and to secure it she took the leather band that kept it on her belt and wrapped it around her wrist, tightening it so that it couldn't fall off.

“What— what the _fuck_.”

Gladion's voice had gone hoarse and shaky, and they stopped walking; he pointed at a Nihilego that hadn't noticed them, drifting slowly to one side.

It didn't look like Lillie anymore— it was in the vague shape of a tall, broad-shouldered man. It was oddly familiar, but she couldn't place who it looked like.

“I think that's the form that Lusamine saw back on Aether Paradise,” Moon theorized. “Yeah, Nihilego kind of change to reflect a person who you have really strong feelings about. So she must be nearby.”

“It looks like my fucking _father._ Arceus fuck.” Gladion sighed. “Lillie's probably right there, but does she give a shit? No. No, she doesn't, because she's here for _him_.”

The Nihilego turned to look at them as they approached; the edges shimmered and shifted until it looked like Lillie with the two braids. Moon gripped her baton, feeling weirdness rippling at the edges of her consciousness; but this one didn't attack. It simply regarded them for a few moments before turning and gliding in the direction they had already been going.

“I think it wants us to follow,” said Moon.

The prickles at the edge of her mind flared up. _See you see you see you soon_..

“Okay yeah, it definitely wants us to follow it. Quit sending me weird thoughts, I don't need that shit in my life.”

Moon could see a brighter light ahead, slightly blocked by the large corals; but the guide Nihilego wove between them until they reached the source.

* * * * *

_And you, my mother, there on the sad height,_

_Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray._

_Do not go gentle into that good night._

_Rage, rage, against the dying of the light_.

* * * * *

“_Lillie_!”

Lillie turned to look at them with weary, sad eyes; her wrists were bound by two Nihilego and she tugged futilely at them, trying to escape. Snowfall was barking and snarling, restrained by another Nihilego; she seemed to be giving it hell. The Ninetales' ferocity had always been her greatest strength, so that made sense.

“Focus,” said Gladion softly.

“Right.”

“Oh, Lillie dear— look who's come to play.”

Lusamine, evidently untouched by any of the Nihilego, sat on what appeared to be a large mushroom. Her eyes were cold and oddly yellow, in the strange glow of the Ultra Sea; but a smile slowly spread into ugly triumph on her face. “It's my worthless offspring, and the Trainer who didn't know when to keep her big nose out of things.” A light laugh spilled from her lips. “My beautiful little friends tell me that your mind is weak— easily controlled. It must be a hard thing to hear, for one who prides herself on her intelligence.”

“I'd be offended, if I didn't agree with you.” Moon actually _was_ kind of offended, but she pushed it down; it was the kind of thing Lusamine would try to use against her. She wasn't about to hand it to the woman on a platter. “It kind of sucks, to have my strength used against me like that. But that's what Nihilego do, isn't it? They take your strength and use it to incapacitate you. They turn it into a weakness.”

Lusamine studied her for a few moments; curiosity crept into her eyes. “An astute observation. I prefer to think of it as removing the barriers to a beautiful, organized mind.”

“Oh, yes,” said Moon, crossing her arms. “You would say that, wouldn't you— what with your little obsession with beauty, and how things look.”

“What's _that_ supposed to mean?” Lusamine's voice went sharp.

Gladion's hand clenched around Moon's— and the fact that his default reaction to his mother's raised voice was to _flinch_ made her see red. “I think you know. But we don't have time to get into that right now.”

“Hmm... why not?” Lusamine raised one hand and snapped her fingers.

Nihilego flooded into the clearing from all sides, and the frenzied thoughts rushed into Moon's mind again. She could eat three pizzas, hell, she could eat _thirty_. She'd brought granola bars, maybe she should eat one of those. Lusamine was probably hungry too. She might like a granola bar.

“Moon,” said Gladion softly, raising his machete. “Talk to me, sunshine.”

Lusamine laughed derisively.

“Um— hungry.” Moon was _starving_. She could eat a hundred malasadas and an entire bucket of fried chicken and at least two pans of Kalosian fries and so many berries, all of the fruit in the world. The scent flooded her nose. “I— keep thinking. About food.”

“Attagirl.”

A different smell flooded in— the same bitter tang she had sensed when Gladion had killed the other Nihilego; his blade dripped, and an indistinct form dribbled to the earth. Another shriek, and most of its fellows descended upon it. Moon fought back the urge to follow them; it wouldn't end well for her.

“Hmm,” said Lusamine, studying them. “That's an interesting strategy. I don't doubt that it works, but it hardly seems fair for you to butcher innocent Pokémon.”

Gladion swallowed hard. Moon admired the line of his jaw, tense with anger; but now really wasn't the time. She would like it to be, but it really wasn't. “It's funny you bring up butchery, Mother. What else would you call harvesting Type: Null Unit One for spare parts?”

Type: Null. Null, Gladion's Null— he'd called her a beast killer. That would be useful. They couldn't turn their backs on Lusamine for a second, and they had to watch each other's backs as well. But Lillie needed help; and Null could take care of that.

“Null,” she mumbled, mouth clumsy and dry. Gladion glanced at her before turning back to his mother. “Get out Null.”

He let go of her hand, selected Null's ball, and sent her out. For a few moments Null looked around, sniffing the air; but then she tensed with a snarl, sandy-brown eyes flattening into hostility. Gladion had given her the Ground Memory— a good choice to face down Nihilego, because Rock and Poison were both weak to it. His hand slipped back into hers.

“Null,” he said softly. “Help Lillie and her Ninetales out, would you?”

Null turned around, padding around them and stalking toward Lillie and the Nihilego who had her. Moon watched her go for a few seconds before turning back to Lusamine.

“They really didn't tell you what you were getting into, did they.” Lusamine waved a hand at them. “Phyco and Soliera. They gave you armor, helmets, a knife, and a stick, and they sent you out into Ultra Space.”

“We've got armor for you, if you want it.” Gladion swallowed. “You— seem to have some sway with the Nihilego, don't you? Tell the one behind you to let you go, and we'll take you and Lillie home.”

“Oh, dear me, no. I don't think so.” Lusamine laughed again. “I shall stay right here.”

“They're going to get hungry eventually.”

“Behind?” said Moon stupidly, looking up at Gladion in confusion.

“Yeah, behind her. It's hidden by her hair, but it's back there. I think it's touching her neck, maybe.”

Oh. Well, that was interesting. There _was_ a Nihilego feeding on Lusamine after all, which meant that it was the one running the show. And if it was taking Lusamine's greatest strength, and turning it into a weakness... what _was_ Lusamine's greatest strength? She was a good liar, a manipulator, a deceiver. She was beautiful and intimidating and fairly intelligent.

But no— the answer came, as clear as day. _Thank you, Nihilego; leave my brain and don't let the door hit you on the way out_. They didn't, of course; but it was a satisfactory thought to have all the same.

“It was very stupid of you to come here, Gladion,” said Lusamine, folding her arms. “What exactly did you hope to accomplish? You're welcome to take Lillie home; she was getting annoying anyway. Why can't the two of you leave me alone? I don't _need_ you.”

“Pride,” Moon said softly to Gladion. “It's— her Nihilego. 'S her pride. Fuckin'— _narc_. You know.”

He squeezed her hand, letting her know he'd heard. “The thing is,” said Gladion to Lusamine, his voice steady, “you've already lost.”

Lusamine went still, looking at him; suddenly, the thoughts that crackled in Moon's mind went silent. She sagged against Gladion, relieved.

“What— what are you talking about?”

“You know what they do, the Nihilego. You're a smart woman. Y-you always have been.” His voice cracked, but he carried on. “You always know what to do. You always know what to say. So when you got here, you knew what the Nihilego do. You had to have read the file before you came.”

“They would h-have—” Lusamine blinked, and for the first time she sounded uncertain. “Led me. To Arbutus. They change their forms. They've seen him.”

“That's what you wanted them to do,” said Gladion, and his voice was oddly gentle. “That's not what they actually did, was it?”

A tear dripped down her cheek. “N-no...”

“When they touch you, they look at your mind. They see what it is you want, and they change to reflect that. They aren't— _real_, Mother. They're just broken dreams. Hungry, broken dreams.”

There was a soft chittering noise, behind Lusamine; suddenly, the yellow-green in her eyes flashed to yellow.

“My dreams have been broken for a long time,” she said venomously, getting to her feet. “How dare you come here and tell me what I should be feeling? How dare you try to manipulate _me_?”

“Ah, shit, that backfired,” muttered Gladion, tugging on Moon's hand as he took a step back.

Lusamine raised a shaking hand to point at them— and then Moon saw it, livid violet-magenta on the back of her arm; invisible from the front. “Get them,” she said, voice rising. “Get them, get them, _get them_!”

This time, there were too many. The gloves were gone in an instant, tendrils swirling around her wrists almost before Moon could blink; Gladion's machete went flying to the earth, even as a cluster of six or seven Nihilego keened as they melted into death. Many more descended upon the fallen to eat their fill, but a few of the ones who were already glutted on a dead companion ignored the urge and grasped Gladion's similarly exposed wrists, painting lurid bruises with their venom. Moon stared at him dizzily— would he fall? Would he fly? He was smart— would he tip into paralyzed insanity, the way she did? Or maybe he would withdraw, preserving himself— it was a quality that had kept him alive, after all.

His pupils dilated, drowning the green out to thin rings around enraged blackness. “You fucking _let go of me_!”

Gladion bellowed it like a war cry, struggling against his captors; the Nihilego knocked into each other and bounced apart, with a chittering noise that sounded like laughter before they slammed him down onto the ground with his arms spread. His helmet cracked in half, revealing sweaty, tousled hair as he roared, outlined muscles straining behind the carbon-fiber suit as he struggled to his feet.

“I'm not afraid of you! I'm not fucking _afraid_ of you! Bring it on, you bitch!”

He rushed at Lusamine, fighting against the Nihilego— feet skidding as they tried to hold him back.

Courage. Of _course_ it was courage. You couldn't be a coward, to do the things that Gladion had done. He often believed he was a coward, because he was so often afraid— but fear wasn't cowardice, fear was _fear_, and when you did things even when you were scared that was courage. Gladion was so very brave and so very strong, and now that the Nihilego had him he was braver and braver and braver, stronger and stronger and stronger— to the point of recklessness.

Moon loved him. She loved him so much.

“_Veno_...”

The tendrils around her wrists tightened— and tightened again and again, until all thought except white-hot pain had vanished from her mind— and yet a thread of thought told her: _this is what Lusamine does; she punishes me, for what Gladion does and says_. The purple slid up her forearms— amazingly, it showed under the royal blue-violet lycra by staining it sickly, greyish magenta. Some kind of heat sensor, or perhaps a toxin scan. The headpiece in her helmet crackled, but whatever it was Zossie and Dulse wanted to tell her, she couldn't hear a thing. There was an odd grinding noise, that accompanied the fire in her wrists; it wasn't breaking bones but it was doing _something_ to them that made her eyes and nose water.

“_Val_!”

Null leaped, sharp teeth sinking into one of the Nihilego that had Gladion's wrists; clear blood spattered, soaking her angular jaw, and the tendril loosened as the Ultra Beast died— shrieking, keening. She really was perfect for this, realized Moon. Nihilego were some weird fleshy fusion between rock and jelly, but Null's teeth and claws cut through them like paper. She sliced the other Nihilego into ribbons, and when one of them grabbed her by the leg she squirmed and bit into it, with no reaction to the poison. Null was every type of Pokémon at once; _she had no weaknesses_, and that meant she was the only creature alive who could withstand the Nihilego.

“Stop it!” screamed Lusamine. Moon blinked, turning to look at her; the purple was creeping around to the front of her arms, to the front of her legs, violet-tinted slime sliding around her shoes and slowly, subtly crawling up toward the hem of her dress. “Stop it! My perfect beasts, you're killing them! Go away, you nasty, ugly thing! I never should have created you!”

“Pride really does come before a fall,” Gladion taunted her; even freed from the Nihilego he was still affected by them— the magenta-purple rimming his hands would not fade until it was treated by the Ultra Space technology. “You thought you could make a little god in your laboratory. Bet you don't like how it feels _now_, huh? You thought you could bring back Dad, even though there's no bringing back the dead. And now you're paying the price.”

Lusamine shrieked wordlessly, stomping over to Gladion and backhanding him— with strength lent her by the Nihilego; it had to be something they had in common, strength. Strength of character or merely strength of will; they were both forces of nature.

The pain and pressure at Moon's wrists faded; she glanced over to see Lillie, pockmarked in purple with exhaustion written on her face. She was holding Gladion's abandoned machete; both of the Nihilego that had been pumping paralytic poison-thoughts into Moon died with only a soft squeal.

“Thank you for coming,” she murmured.

Moon blinked at her. There were so many things she wanted to say, things that would burst from her mouth like a waterfall _if only her mouth would fucking open_. “Knapsack,” she said finally. “Extra suit.”

“It seems to be a case of shutting the stable door after the Mudsdale's already been stolen, but thank you for thinking of me.”

Lillie opened Moon's knapsack, taking out one of the suits; she simply pulled it on over her clothes, shoes and all. The spandex tightened automatically, which meant that Zossie was probably still tracking their vitals even if the radio wasn't working. It looked like Lillie was wearing footie pajamas— oddly shaped ones, with bulges where her jeans and T-shirt bunched and wrinkled beneath. Snowfall, at Lillie's ankles, whimpered softly.

“I— I know, Snowfall. I can't... but I have to.” Tears leaked from her eyes. “I'm sorry. I tried, Moon, really I did. I couldn't keep her at the Altar. I failed you.”

Moon slowly shook her head. “Didn't,” she mumbled. “Didn't— fail. 'S okay.”

Lillie's smile was tired. “You always say that. _It's okay_. I know you just say it to make us feel better, because it never seems to be true.”

She still couldn't quite comprehend what Lillie's strength-to-weakness from Nihilego was, but the evidence was everywhere on her body, even on her face— a human handprint. With the Nihilego attached to Lusamine, she'd probably slapped Lillie; Gladion probably had one too. Moon glanced over at him, where he danced around Lusamine with an arrogant, taunting smile on his bruised face. Null tore through any Nihilego that managed to grab her or Gladion. They all seemed to be focused on Gladion— probably because Lusamine was focused on Gladion, not thinking about Moon or Lillie.

Lillie took a deep breath, and recalled Snowfall. “Sit down,” she advised Moon. “Hero won't be affected by the Nihilego venom—”

_Oh_. Oh, she hadn't even thought about her own Pokémon; she had been slightly concerned about how the Nihilego would affect them and had decided they were better off in her belt. “Steel 'mmunity?”

“Exactly.” Lillie smiled again, still tired. “See, even if the Nihilego are affecting you, you're still as sharp as a tack. Hero can shelter you, and you can have your other Pokémon attacking any that come near.”

“You?”

Another sigh; another smile. “I have something left to do.”

She turned away, walking toward her mother. Moon absently reached for her belt, selecting Hero and Macbeth. Hero seemed to comprehend immediately what Lillie had suggested, lowering its back legs down to the ground but leaving its front legs up to form a sort of tent. Macbeth sat down next to Moon, claws sharp and eyes sharper, waiting for an attack.

“Mother,” said Lillie loudly, drawing Lusamine's attention. “Mother, stop this. You're being childish.”

“I'm being childish? _I'm_ being childish? You _are_ a child!” bellowed Lusamine, whirling on her daughter. The Nihilego that was slowly wrapping itself around her had grown, forming longer legs that bubbled around her; everything but her face was covered in the ghostly, transparent flesh. Her hair swirled like midnight satin in the Nihilego's depths; and her eyes blazed with amber-gold hatred. “You are a _child_! I am your _mother_ and you cannot tell me what to do! _Why can't you just do what I want you to do_?”

Lillie took a deep breath, then let it out. “Biologically speaking,” she said softly, “you are correct. You are part of what made me. But all the things you do, all the things you say? Something you've told me often is that _actions speak louder than words_. I believe you, when you say that. Your words say that you are my mother... but your actions do not.”

Lusamine screamed wordlessly, raising one Nihilego-coated hand; Null snarled, tensing to jump, and she seemed to think better of it.

“Why did you even come here then?" she spat. "If you aren't going to do what I want, then you didn't have to come at all! Go back to that ugly world you call home, if you're so eager to get rid of me!”

“You keep twisting what I say.” Lillie's voice remained quiet; it meant that Lusamine had to keep the Nihilego quiet, to hear her. “You always do that. You make everything about you.”

“And why shouldn't I?” Lusamine spread her arms, golden eyes glittering ferociously. “I can live here, in a world filled with only the things that I love. So go on— get out of here! I'm sick of the very sight of you.”

Lillie gazed at her, saying nothing.

“I- I don't care if you are my child or not!” Lusamine's voice cracked; her teeth clenched. “I don't care if you were loyal to me or not! I don't care if you're the rarest Pokémon there is in the world, or not!”

“I'm not a Pokémon, Mother.”

Lusamine carried on as though Lillie hadn't spoken. “If you're not beautiful enough to be worthy of my love, then I don't NEED you!” she shrieked. “All I need to exist in my world are the things that I want to have with me! Everything else is just a bother to me.”

Lillie took another deep breath, fists clenched at her sides. The world around them seemed to pulse; Lusamine, and the Nihilego that had nearly enclosed her in slime and bruises, was waiting on tenterhooks like the rest of them, to hear what Lillie had to say.

“I'm sick of _you_, Mother.”

Lusamine reeled backwards, as though she'd been slapped.

“Children... children are not just _things_ that belong to their parents. Pokémon are not just _things_ that a Trainer can do whatever they want to. You do not have the right to hurt and torture and kill, people or Pokémon, just because you have money and power and influence. And the part of you that thinks you can? That part of you is sick and twisted and _wrong_.”

“Sh-shut up!” Lusamine's voice was weak; and tears were flowing. Pride was her strength— and so it was her weakness, Moon realized. Her pride was brittle, fragile— easily broken.

“I am alive,” continued Lillie. “Nebby—” Her voice caught. “Nebby _is_ alive. We aren't things for you to collect, or use. We're not made for you to just discard when you get bored with us.” She slowly closed her eyes, then opened them again; they shone with tears. “That is _terrible_, Mother. You— you are a terrible person.”

It was clear that Lusamine was breaking, but she was, again, too prideful to admit when she had been beaten. “Terrible? Me?” she blustered. “How am I different from any Pokémon Trainer like your little _friend_, there?” She waved a slimy hand in Moon's direction; a pulse of foreign thought briefly made her head ache. “Except for the fact that I'm not so pathetic I can't even speak.”

“You _shut the fuck up_ about her,” snarled Gladion, taking a step forward with fists clenched. “You don't look at her, you don't talk about her. You're _nothing_ to her.”

“Idiot,” mumbled Moon, but she smiled anyway.

“What do you do with a Pokémon you can't use, Lillie? You remove it from your team, as you please. People are just the same. If you aren't going to make yourself useful, you aren't worth my time or effort.”

Lillie smiled. It was soft, and sweet; a tear spilled down her cheeks. “What if I said the same thing about you?”

The quiet that fell was absolute. Lusamine gaped at Lillie; Moon could practically see the wheels turning in her head.

“When,” continued Lillie, “have you ever done anything to help me? When have you ever said something kind just because you could, and not because you wanted something or because it was expected of you? When have you ever let me cry into your shoulder, the way a mother should let her daughter cry upon her? Every time you had me wash the dishes or scrub the floor to punish Gladion— what purpose did it serve? It didn't teach either of us anything. You have never been helpful. You have never been supportive. You have never been kind— to us. Your own _children_. By your logic, you are not worth our time or our effort, either.”

The yellow was fading from Lusamine's eyes— a glimmer of green returned. “Back when you were small, you would listen to everything I said, without question. It was... adorable.”

“And then I grew ugly.” Lillie sighed.

“And then you grew ug—” Lusamine paused, staring at her. “What did you say?”

“And then, I grew ugly. I've heard this one before, Mother. Obedience is beautiful, I'm disgusting and unlovable and worthless if I don't do what you say, growing up and learning to make your own decisions is a reprehensible evil that plagues the entire world and teenagers are symbols of debauchery and wickedness. We've been over this. Can you make an argument that isn't _completely_ predictable and self-absorbed?”

Gladion doubled over with laughter, hands pressed to his mouth. “Holy _shit_, Lillie, go off!”

Lusamine's eyes grew wide, looking at him and Null and then back at Lillie; then over where Moon sat, leaning on Hero's heavy metal shell.

“You can't s-_say_ that,” she stuttered. “You, you can't say that. You can't.”

“I did say it.” Lillie's eyes bored into Lusamine's; her mother seemed to be unable to look away. “And I will say it again, and again, and again. Even if you scream at me, even if you insult me, even if you try to hit me. Even if you try to punish Gladion or my friends or anyone I love, I will keep saying it. I←” She closed her eyes, and she sighed. “I will _not_ give up. Not even if it kills me.”

It clicked. The bruises of Nihilego's manipulation spotted Lillie, the way they spotted everyone else; but the strength that Lillie had, the strength that was carried out beyond what she could sustain— that strength was perseverance, and the inability to let go was the countering weakness.

“Know this, Mother.” Lillie's voice was still quiet, and beginning to be hoarse. “I will stand here and argue with you forever, if I have to. I never had the endurance for it before I left. I did what you said because it was easier than fighting. But since I met Moon and Hau, since I found Gladion again— since I raised Nebby and all of my Pokémon and took a wonderful, beautiful journey around Alola— I have learned how to endure. I will not obey you, and I will not give up.”

“Go away!” screamed Lusamine. Tears streamed down her cheeks, absorbed by the Nihilego as it slowly crept up the sides of her face. All that remained uncovered were her eyes and nose and mouth. “Go away, go away, go away!”

“No.”

“_Go away_!”

“No.”

“_GO AWAY_!”

“No.”

“_JUST LEAVE ME HERE TO DIE_!”

“I am glad you know that you are dying. Once the Nihilego covers your nose and mouth, it will drown you in venom and you will melt into flesh, then bone, then nothing at all.” Moon winced, not having read that far into the Nihilego file. “If you really wish it, I will leave you to die. But I don't think you want to die, Mother. I think you are afraid to die. I think you are afraid to ask us to help you, because that means you aren't perfect.”

Lillie turned her head deliberately, to look at Gladion; Lusamine followed her gaze and for the first time since Moon had met her, something akin to guilt flickered in the woman's eyes.

“It's all right to be afraid,” said Gladion. He still looked angry, but his mouth was trembling— he was on the verge of tears. “Asking for help when you need it isn't stupid. It's— it's very brave. You— I would be really, _really_ impressed with you, if you asked us to help you.”

For a few moments, Lusamine remained motionless. The Nihilego slime crossed her eyebrows, crept up her cheekbones toward the bridge of her nose.

Then she opened her mouth, just barely, and let out the tiniest whisper.

“_H-help me..._”

The Nihilego pulsed; the slime swept over Lusamine's nose and mouth and she thrashed violently— bubbles forming, inside the slime.

“_Null, get her out_!”

Null leaped, tearing into the slime. A high, keening shriek pierced the air, as the Nihilego burst and shriveled away, leaving only Lusamine lying in a puddle. She was unconscious, dark blood dribbling from one nostril; but the most disturbing thing was that she was covered, head to toe, in Nihilego bruises that ranged from splotchy magenta to deep violet. Her hair, formerly white-blond like Lillie and Gladion, was now somewhere between indigo and violet, with threads of yellow-gold running through it.

But her chest moved, and that meant she was breathing.

“_Ni ni ni ni ni ni ni ni ni ni ni ni ni ni ni ni_—”

The shriek doubled, tripled, quadrupled and exponentialed into a deafening, hateful chorus. Nihilego flooded from everywhere, converging upon them. Macbeth shrieked, slashing out with First Impression and X-Scissor as fast as she possible; but a few of them crept past, pressing tendrils onto Moon's face and wrists, pulling her out. Emergency Exit recalled Macbeth automatically after only a few moments; Hero couldn't be harmed by the Nihilego but she could be incapacitated, dozens of them roping around her legs to hold her in place as she bellowed, echoes of clashing steel until Moon managed to recall her. Fire on her wrists, fire on her face; fire trying to snake down into the neckguard, fire trying to push up her arms to her shoulders and, eventually her heart. Lillie screamed as she too was captured, but she was still thrashing, still struggling. Moon heard an awful, _awful_ popping noise and the scream swelled higher and higher; that was a dislocated wrist or she was an Aipom's uncle.

The breath was knocked from her lungs when she was slammed into the ground; her arms were pulled behind her and weight pressed down on the back of the helmet— she could hear the plastic crunching. They wanted to crack it open, to eat her from the squishy insides out like a Nanab berry. Well, that wasn't a great example because Nanab berries didn't really have shells; they had skins, which could be peeled off like a candy wrapper made by nature. She could probably eat a Nanab berry skin though. She was probably crazy, but she'd read some article about how Nanab peels could be toxic in large quantities. Though anything in the world, if you consumed enough of it in some form or another, could be toxic—

It was Nihilego, of course. Distracting her from her imminent death.

_FOODFOODFOODFOODFOODFOODFOODFOODFOODFOODFOOD_—

“_Solgaleo_!” bellowed Gladion, half restrained and half free as Null continued to hack away at the Nihilego. “Solgaleo, if you can hear us— we need you!”

_He doesn't, but I do_.

And suddenly, mercifully, everything went black— and though Moon could faintly hear muffled shouts and the piercing chorus of angry Nihilego, soon enough sound faded into silence. All she could sense was the smell of soft, sweet smoke.

* * * * *

_Though wise men know at their end dark is right,_

_Because their words had forked no lightning they_

_Do not go gentle into that good night_.

* * * * *

_Stop thinking stop thinking stop thinking stop thinking stop thinking_. The Nihilego weren't there anymore— at least, she couldn't hear their whispery, fluting voices crawling through her ears— but her mind still raced. She was stuck to a wheel that rolled down an eternal hill; the thoughts were quiet but they were still there. Her head hurt. So did her heart, but for entirely different reasons. Actually, it probably was the same reason.

She'd accepted the request from Phyco and Soliera to help, to go to Ultra Space and assist with retrieving Lusamine and Guzma— and then Lillie, after the fiasco at the Altar. She had traveled through Poni Island with her friends, training her team in full confidence that she could rescue people without difficulty. She'd survived Nihilego once, hadn't she?

She'd been fine... hadn't she?

Tapu Bulu had healed her in body. There had been no coldness in her wrists, no aching or pain left over from that time in the Aether Paradise conservatory. But Moon was beginning to understand that far more now, than she had ever suspected, that the damage wrought in her mind by Nihilego would never truly be healed. She might be able to move on, to return to Earth and live out life like normal; but there would always be a small part of her that knew of the madness, lurking within her mind. And if she ever had to come back to Ultra Space after this— it didn't seem likely, but intuition whispered that she shouldn't make assumptions— then it would return.

She kept her eyes closed, because the idea of opening them seemed overwhelming— the endless noise of thought was _almost_ manageable without sensory input— but she could still smell sweet smoke, and she could hear as well— quiet conversation, somewhere nearby.

“Do you think she'll be all right?”

“She'd better be,” said Gladion, a touch grimly. “I didn't rescue her from a bunch of aliens just for her to die before I could yell at her properly.”

Lillie laughed hollowly. “I hope she remembers everything. It would be a pity if she didn't learn anything from this experience and I had to lecture her all over again.”

They were talking about Lusamine. Moon sort of wanted to see how Lusamine was doing— the purple had looked nasty, from what she could remember. Some of the memories were already getting fuzzy, toxins wearing off slowly. This did not make them any less terrifying. Knowing that she had been trapped in her own mind with spiraling epiphany upon spiraling epiphany was one thing, but being unable to remember much about it other than constant surprise and terror was quite another.

“Oh, Moon's stirring,” said Lillie. A touch of mischief crept into her voice. “Go wake her up— she'll appreciate that. Hau said she was very cute in the post-high last time, but he would never tell her that.”

Footsteps, approaching; then rustling, as someone sat down next to her head. For almost a full minute there was silence; but then a feather-light touch brushed from her temple to her jawline, just inside the opening of the helmet visor. “I think you're awake, sunshine. You're blushing.”

Goddamn it. Moon resignedly opened her eyes. “I'm awake.” It was a little easier to say than she thought it would be; maybe some of the toxins that made her slower were wearing off, or perhaps the slowness was more of a proximity thing. “Still high. Where's... Lillie 'n' Null?”

Gladion was much closer than she expected him to be. His face was stained with Nihilego bruises, as she knew hers was; and his pupils were still dilated. It was clearly an effect of the Nihilego toxins, but dilated pupils were also a biological indicator of arousal _and holy shit would someone shut her brain the fuck up_.

“They're just over there with Lusamine,” he said, propping his chin on his hand. “And we're all kind of high, sunshine.”

Moon nodded. “Head hurts.”

“Sorry to hear that.”

His eyes were fixed on hers, brazenly admiring; and Moon remembered that he was high on courage which meant that he was reckless enough to ignore his natural reserve and _that_ meant he was going to be more forward than usual. She swallowed. Gladion's eyes flicked down to her throat, noting her movement; his head tilted to one side, and a lazy smirk rolled onto one corner of his mouth. _Holy shit oh my god what the fuck_—

“Ah, you're pretty,” he murmured, reaching out; the same feather-light touch was his fingertips, trailing hotly from temple to jaw once more. Her entire face was going to catch fire, Arceus hell. “And soft.”

An embarrassingly choked squeak burst from her lungs, exiting through her nose. Gladion breathed laughter, hand cupping her heated face; Moon reached up, grabbed his hand, and covered her eyes with it so she didn't have to witness her own demise.

“I have no idea what you're doing over there, but we're running out of time,” called Lillie.

“Ah, right.”

He took his hand away. Moon scrunched her eyes shut, bringing her own hands up to cover her face; but he pulled them away.

“No, don't do that, sunshine. I like seeing you blush.” He frowned. “You know, I would never say that out loud if I weren't fucking high, but I thought maybe it would sound less cringy.”

“'M dead,” Moon informed the universe.

“You better not be. We haven't gotten to do anything fun yet.” He paused. “I think the toxins might be wearing off a bit, for me. I shouldn't say shit like that right now.”

One of his arms slipped under her back, and the other went behind her knees; he lifted her, with a slightly pained grunt.

“Sorry,” mumbled Moon.

“No, you're fine. I'm just not as strong as Hau.”

He carried her over to where Lillie cradled her wrist, seated between an unconscious, still-purple Lusamine and the red Solgaleo; but there was another Pokémon with them— one that Moon had never seen before. It was small and dark, rather difficult to see against the darkness that surrounded them; but two glowing orange eyes peered up at her in wary curiosity as Gladion knelt. She expected him to set her down and move away, but another stupid squeak spilled from her nose when he settled next to her, half-draping over her. Moon swallowed again and pushed away nerves and soft wanting, to focus on the matter at hand.

“Who are you?”

She expected an answer from Lillie or Gladion, but was surprised when a soft, clear voice echoed in her mind. _I am Marshadow_.

“He's unique, he thinks,” explained Gladion, his breath tickling her ear. “At least, he's never met another one of his kind. He came when I called and rescued us, which was very nice of him.”

_It is not characteristic of me_. A pause. _I... am not fond of humans, as a rule. And other beasts are not altogether fond of me_.

“Why did you help?” Why did you come, how did you know we were in trouble, where did you take us... but she couldn't quite manage all of those words, either.

_I am not fond of humans because I watch them, from my shadows. They do many bad things_. The orange eyes flicked to Lillie, then to Gladion, then back to Moon. _But you are different. You struck down the sirens in self-defense, but you favor beasts and humans equally. You are... compassionate. I could not let that kind of human perish at the hands of the sirens_.

“How,” began Moon; the words burbled up and away and she sighed, frustrated. “How— did we get away?”

_I know I don't look very intimidating, but I am old. Older than any Pokémon you have met, except for Grandmother Starlight_._ I took you through the shadow paths, the ones that only shades and spirits may take._

“Grandmother Starlight is Necrozma,” clarified Lillie.

“Right.” And as she spoke, she remembered, with razorlike clarity— _definitely_ still high, then. On intelligence, or whatever it was. “Poem. From the library.”

“The Light of Alola?” said Lillie, with a frown.

Moon nodded. It was all coming together. Her memory, enhanced by poison, recalled the entire poem; the lines she wanted were at the end.

“_The truest— zenith_,” she said carefully. “_The light of Alola_.” Her mouth felt slow— clumsy, wrong. “_Comes fourfold_.” A deep breath. “_Sun, shadow, moon, and star_.”

“Did you have that memorized?” asked Lillie, wide-eyed.

Moon shook her head. “High.” She cleared her throat. “Thought— Necrozma, shadow. Sun, Solgaleo. Moon, Lunala. Didn't know star.”

“Oh,” said Lillie, eyes lighting up. “I think I understand. Necrozma isn't the shadow; she's the _star_.”

“And Marshadow is probably the shadow,” suggested Gladion, indicating the little imp; it blinked timidly up at them, taking a few steps closer. “It's in the name and everything, and if he's that old then it makes sense he'd been included in the poem. Light isn't really anything unless there's darkness to contrast with it, right? We wouldn't be able to tell that it _was_ light.”

Moon nodded. “Broken star,” she said, looking at Lillie. Phyco and Soliera had explained this, told them the story— if she could just manage to get the right words out, then Lillie might understand again. “Damaged. Scientists.” She took a breath. “Lobotomy. Crystals.”

“Oh,” said Lillie softly, eyes going round. “Moon, I never thought of that."

“What?” demanded Gladion. “What about a lobotomy?”

“It's a long story— Phyco and Soliera told us, back in Tapu Village,” said Lillie quickly. “Scientists cut crystals out of Necrozma's head, and Moon is saying that they seem to have ended up on Earth. It's where we get Z-Crystals from.”

Gladion sighed. “Why is humanity full of shit?” he muttered, forehead falling to rest on Moon's shoulder. “It's just like Type: Null Unit One. Fucking _bullshit_.”

“Black hole.” Moon tried to push the words out. “She eats. Eats. _Eats_. Never enough.”

“A _dying_ star. A singularity.” Lillie nodded admiringly. “Moon, that's _brilliant_.”

“ 'S poison, but. Thanks.” Moon waved her off, exhaling deeply. They understood.

_I don't know what a singularity is, but what you say sounds correct. Grandmother Starlight once shone with the radiance of a thousand thousand suns, and wherever she walked I would follow_. Marshadow's voice sounded slightly forlorn. _Once she became hungry, she didn't like me anymore. She said I was annoying_.

“People say things they don't mean when they're in pain.” Gladion's voice was soft. “Once she's better, I'm sure she'll apologize and be your friend again.”

The little Pokémon blinked at him for a few moments. _Thank you_, he said, gaze falling to the ground.

“Anyway, Marshadow rescued us from all the Nihilego.”

_I took you through the shadow paths_, repeated Marshadow._ We are at the door you opened, but I have cast a shadow here so that the Nihilego cannot see or hear you_.

Shadow paths... like what Acerola used, with her Pokémon. Marshadow must be a Ghost-type or a partial Ghost-type, decided Moon.

“He's offered to take two of us home,” explained Gladion. “Solgaleo could carry you and me, and maybe Lillie too; but we didn't expect for _her_ to be unconscious.” He indicated Lusamine. “She's breathing and all, but she's not in great shape. So Marshadow will take two of us back to the Altar of the Moone, and Solgaleo can take the other two.”

“Or not,” said Moon.

Gladion's eyes narrowed. “What's that supposed to mean?”

“Nebby.”

“How about _no_. You need medicine, and probably a hospital.”

“Medtech. Zossie. Dulse.” He opened his mouth to argue, but Moon held up one hand, asking him to wait. “I can... separate. Nebby, and Necrozma. I think.”

“How would you separate them?”

Lillie's voice was quiet. Moon looked at her; her friend was exhausted, but her vulnerability to the Nihilego meant that she would not be giving up.

“Saw... something. Weird. Fought Necrozma. Saw Nebby under. Struggling.” Lillie's eyes widened, but she waited patiently for Moon to push words to the front of her mouth. “Necrozma controlled. Again. Wanted home. Something about... healing. If we go, she can't. Run away. So— defeat again. Give her something else. Something different.”

She was not at all sure that it would work, but it was the only option that had so far presented itself so she was going to make an attempt.

Gladion was still frowning, but more in confusion than anything else.

L:illie nodded hesitantly. “I'm still not quite sure what you mean, but I can't ask you to explain any further—”

“No time.”

“I meant that it's obviously difficult for you to talk right now, but that's also a factor. So you and I will take Solgaleo to Ultra Megalopolis, and Gladion will take Mother and go with Marshadow.” Her voice brooked no argument.

Gladion sighed heavily. “I have the feeling I'm not going to be able to talk either of you out of this,” he muttered. “Fine, then. But you both better come back, or Hau will throw me into the Vast Poni Canyon and they'll never find my body.” He got to his feet, looking down at Lusamine and sighing again. “Better get this show on the road.”

Moon and Lillie helped him get Lusamine onto his back, piggyback style; she wasn't able to hold on, but as long as Gladion leaned forward there was no danger of her falling. Marshadow lifted a tiny hand to wave at Moon and Lillie before hopping onto Gladion's foot, clinging to his leg. The smoky helmet lightened from silky charcoal to a dusty cyan color, and his eyes glowed bronze; Gladion took a few steps forward into the blackness, and he and Lusamine faded from sight.

The shadows left as Marshadow did, and Moon could see that they were exactly where Solgaleo had first let them out. She turned to look at Lillie, and they made eye contact and sighed in unison.

“Ultra Megalopolis?”

Moon nodded. “Let's go.”

Lillie was, at the moment, more physically stable than Moon; so she helped Moon climb onto Solgaleo first. Moon put the visor of her helmet back down as Lillie hugged her to hang on; the red god roared, and they leaped into the stream once more.

* * * * *

_Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight_

_Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,_

_Rage, rage, against the dying of the light._

* * * * *

“Oh, wow!”

Moon blinked, and the world seemed to topple sideways; but steady hands caught her, pulling her off the Solgaleo. Riding through Ultra Space while high on Nihilego toxins was a terrible, _terrible_ idea; her head pounded and every muscle in her body was screaming for her to just stop, but her gut twisted nastily.

“Leggo,” she informed whoever was holding her upright. “I'm gonna—”

She didn't get to finish her sentence, because the vomit was coming up before she could. Her head pounded as she hacked the nasty stuff out; and a lot of it was coming out purple, which was very strange because she definitely hadn't eaten anything purple.

“That is a good sign. Your immune system is rejecting the Nihilego's toxins.”

She had heard this voice, not terribly long ago. “Oh,” she gasped, between heaves. “Hi Dulse.”

“...Hello.”

Soft, high laughter rippled through the air; that was also familiar. “Zossie.”

“Hi, Moon! There aren't any more human life signs in the void, so I'm guessing you got everyone out okay?”

“Yeah. Y'know Marshadow?”

“Mar what now?”

“Never mind.” Moon heaved one final time, though nothing came up; the dizziness that had induced the vomit in the first place had faded to something manageable, and she looked up blearily at Zossie and Dulse.

Zossie was, in fact, a teenage girl— a rather short one, if Moon were being perfectly honest. If it weren't for the fact that both Phyco and Soliera said the lieutenant was about sixteen, Moon would have mistaken her for twelve or thirteen, at the very most. Moon had also thought that all of the citizens of Ultra Megalopolis would have hair in shades of blue or purple, given their skin tone and the fact that neither Phyco nor Soliera seemed like the type of people who would dye their hair; but she was wrong once again. Zossie's skin had the same bluish color as the others, but her hair was a vibrant, nearly eye-searing red-orange color.

Dulse, on the other hand, had purple-blue hair the same color as Soliera; and instead of helmets like what Phyco and Soliera wore, he merely wore what appeared to be a combination of a headset and sunglasses.

“Nice to meet you, Moon!” chirped Zossie. “I'd have thought you would go home, too.”

“Can't,” said Moon, attempting to stand up; Dulse caught her almost automatically, a slight frown on his face. “Know how to fix Nebby. And Necrozma.”

Zossie's jaw dropped. “Really? Wow. Um— holy blinding light. We should tell Captain Phyco and Soliera.”

Moon nodded. “Yeah. Where's Nebby? And Necrozma?”

Lillie snorted. “I think you should probably let Private Dulse treat your poisoning symptoms first.”

“No. Need to find Nebby. And Necrozma.” Moon blinked at Lillie. “Neb-crozma?”

Lillie's mouth flattened into a thin line. “No.”

“Not.. even once?”

“Absolutely not.”

Moon sighed. “I tried.”

“You really should let us treat you.”

“Just a little. Need to talk. So I can battle.” Moon felt a little steadier, and attempted to take a step forward; the world wobbled a bit, but she didn't fall over. “Don't wanna forget how to separate. So I gotta go _now_.”

“You are in no state to battle right now,” said Dulse pointedly, folding his arms.

Moon glared at him. “_No time_.”

He stared at her for a few moments, then let out a sigh. Zossie glanced over at them, but she was speaking quietly into the communicator and didn't make any objection. “Soliera is going to have my head,” he muttered, but he opened a black medical kit and pulled out a plastic-wrapped syringe. Moon vaguely remembered that the one Soliera had injected into her at Aether contained orange fluid, like the weird lotion; but this one was bright blue. He stabbed it into her arm without bothering to roll up the sleeve of the suit or even warn her.

"_Ow_."

“This is antivenom and adrenaline,” he explained. “It will take a minute to kick in properly. Ultra Megalopolans, as well as people of other worlds, do occasionally get lost in the Ultra Sea. We developed a field patch for emergency purposes.”

“Oh,” said Moon, blinking. “Oh— oh my god. That's already _so_ much better.” It felt like her mouth was loosening, relaxing; but her thoughts still raced, and so did her heartbeat. It was probably not the best idea for her to do this— in fact, medically speaking it was highly inadvisable, because she was still very much in shock. But her priority at the moment was Nebby; that's what she was here for. “Okay. Um. Where's Nebby and Necrozma?”

Dulse pointed past her, expression resigned.

Moon turned around, looking up into a black sky— truly black, for there was not a single star in sight. She knew they were outside, judging by the fresh feeling of the air. There were dim streetlights, as well as a few softly lit windows in nearby buildings; but the only real source of light in the area came from a tall, spindly tower about a hundred yards away. Near the top of the tower, a bright, pulsing light shone from what looked like a latticed cage. There was a large hole torn in the cage, and the light from there was brighter than everything else.

“That is the Spire,” said Dulse. “It is where the Coterie— our government— meets to discuss matters of law and state. It is also the ancestral home of the Blinding One, the place where we have built the cage that sometimes contains her. Right now, she is in a _very_ poor mood. I do not know how long she will stay.”

“I'll be quick.” Moon reached for her belt, selecting Hero again; she was still too wobbly and slow to make it to the Spire on her own, but she could manage to hang onto Hero for a little while.

“Thank you,” said Lillie softly.

Her eyes were full of tears. Moon nodded— she understood.

Hero was faster than she looked, but she hadn't quite mastered a smooth gallop so it was a very bumpy ride over to the base of the Spire. A grand lobby looked like it had been hastily abandoned— some of the furniture had been knocked over, and a framed electronic display on the wall hung by one corner, wobbling slightly. The elevator seemed like it would be the fastest option. Moon recalled Hero and went to check it out. The buttons weren't in any language she could read, but there were some symbols that looked vaguely like the _door open_ and _door close_ buttons on an Earth elevator. One button by itself seemed more important than the rest, so she pressed it.

The elevator doors opened— the car had been on the ground floor. Moon went in and examined the inner panel of buttons. Logically, the top button would lead to the highest floor; but her fingers paused over a bright blue button that had a circular symbol, striped like the slats of a cage.

_Your intuition is good right now_, Moon reminded herself. _Jellyfish drugs make your brain work, even if they screw everything else up_. She took a moment to heal up her team. Only Hero and Macbeth had taken damage; all five of them were grimly ready to fight and waiting on her signal.

The blue circle button did, in fact, take her to the correct place. Moon knew this because when the doors opened, she felt a heady thrum in her head— similar to the Nihilego, but far more pleasant in that this voice wanted nothing to do with her.

There were a few steps— she'd come out on the side of the tower, with a glass and metal lattice catwalk separating her from certain death.

It would be very_, very_ inconvenient to have a panic attack over a high drop right now.

Moon gritted her teeth and shut her eyes and imagined Gladion, imagined his arms around her and the feathering of his fingertips along her jawline. It probably was not the healthiest coping mechanism; but it was the most efficient one. It would get her up the steps, and that was all she needed.

She kept her eyes scrunched closed, clinging to the inside railing and taking it one step at a time.

_Why are you here_?

The voice was bitter and resigned.

“I'd like my friend back,” answered Moon.

She came to a stop and took off her helmet, opening her eyes. There was one last bend, with stairs that went upward and inward to the cage itself.

* * * * *

_Do not go gentle into that good night,_

_Old age should burn and rave at close of day;_

_Rage, rage, against the dying of the light._

* * * * *

Nebby-Necrozma sat huddled in the center of the cage, wings folded around herself; the scarlet eyes glared hatred at Moon and she took a shuffling step back. _No_. _Mine_.

Moon sighed. “We can do this the easy way or the hard way. Come on.”

_NO. MINE_.

“Hard way it is.”

If there was time, Moon would have tried to explain herself; but she was in a hurry. Nebby-Necrozma was beginning to look less like Nebby, and more like Necrozma— which meant that Nebby's life was beginning to burn out.

She sent out Macbeth first. Nebby-Necrozma hissed in annoyance, then spread her wings and let out a shrill, angry cry.

Light exploded around them— louder and hotter and brighter than Moon had expected. She squinted into the light, not wanting to close her eyes and risk getting Macbeth hurt.

Nebby-Necrozma now looked neither like Nebby nor Necrozma. She was much, much larger, but her limbs seemed oddly delicate. She kept Lunala's wings, but her head had changed shape into something that was simultaneously more feline and more draconian.

“This is your true form,” Moon realized out loud. “This is what you _ought_ to look like.”

There was a hiss of low, malevolent laughter in her head. _If you left me be, I could look like this all the time_.

“You could. But as big as the universe is, you really shouldn't go around eating people's suns and moons. They need those. Are you _sure_ you don't want to talk about it?”

Nebby-Necrozma— it wasn't really a fitting name anymore, and they were in Ultra Megalopolis so she decided that Ultra-Necrozma was better— roared again; and a familiar sensation washed over the entire cage: an aura, like the ones that the Totems gained during trials. Moon smiled. The proof was in the pudding; and she was quite fond of pudding. “Macbeth, First Impression! Give it all you've got!”

Macbeth roared right back— and Moon's heart melted, for her brave Golisopod had come a long way from the skittish Wimpod that flinched away from cruel children. Ultra Necrozma reared herself to strike, but First Impression hit first, and it hit _hard_. Their opponent reeled back, a slight whine at the edge of her growl; but then she bellowed again with a move that Moon thought might have been Power Gem on steroids; she had to dodge a few of them herself. Rocks and crystals rained down from the ceiling onto Macbeth; whatever the attack was it was super-effective, and Macbeth fainted instantly.

That was fine. Moon had Revives, and she was planning on using them if she had to. It was generally considered cheating to revive one of your Pokémon mid-battle, but Ultra Necrozma wouldn't really care about battle etiquette.

Of course, the very fact of Ultra Necrozma not caring about battle etiquette had its downsides as well. For instance, the recognizable Dragon Pulse aimed _directly at Moon_ forced her to throw herself to the side again. She didn't have time to overthink things. She was _still_ too slow to act, even if the ideas were coming quick and fast. Maybe she should have accepted more medical treatment. Moon sent out Ariel, though she knew she risked being taken out by Power Gem again.

“Ariel, Brick Break! Make it hurt!”

Ariel, as per usual, obeyed at once. Unfortunately, Brick Break didn't seem to do very much damage— without Rotom to analyze for her, Moon decided that Ultra Necrozma had probably maintained Nebby's Psychic-typing. Necrozma itself might have been a Psychic-type too, but she wasn't entirely sure. However, the move actually did land and did at least a little bit of damage; which meant that Nebby's secondary Ghost-typing was no longer a concern. That was good to know.

Ultra Necrozma sucked in a deep breath, then let out a horrifying, _blinding_ scream— blinding, because light shot from her jaws to strike at Ariel. Moon had to dodge again, but her poor Toucannon didn't stand a chance. It would have been really nice to have Rotom to tell her what exactly the fuck that had been. Moon guessed it was some sort of signature move.

It seemed to take a lot out of Ultra Necrozma, for it panted heavily for several long moments. Moon sent out Ben and cued up Rain Dance, hoping that her opponent's exhaustion would allow her the time to set up Thunder properly.

“You're going to have to dodge her,” she shouted at Ben, as the rain pattered down around them; Rain Dance seemed to be _much_ more potent on Ultra Megalopolis, which was odd because they didn't seem to have a moon to affect water and tides... not the point. There she went, getting distracted again; but perhaps a heightened Rain Dance would translate over to Thunder as well. “She has a big area of effect, and you're small so that's going to be difficult. But you're definitely way faster than she is. You've got this!”

Ultra Necrozma took another deep breath, light gathering at her mouth.

“_Oh shit that's the move get the fuck out of her way_!”

Ben sprang, light and catlike, out of the path of the blazing roar; a smoking crater was left where he had been standing. Ultra Necrozma breathed hard, sighing.

“Now, Ben! Thunder!”

Ben growled, and it echoed through the room— almost as loud as Ultra Necrozma. He'd always had big lungs, from the time he'd hatched. The air crackled— inside _and_ outside of the tower; a skeletal blue thread snaked out to slam into Ultra Necrozma with two, six, fourteen, forty separate tendrils, knocking their foe off her feet.

For a few moments Moon wondered if she'd won; but then Ultra Necrozma slowly rolled to one side, leaning on one wing as she staggered upright. The wings slowly flapped, and she left the earth, now hovering in the air.

“Oh that ain't good.”

Power Gem spelled bad news for Ben; he was her most fragile teammate and he fainted almost at once. Moon called him back and sent out Hero.

“Hero, use Iron Head!”

The Metagross had to take a running start, but she galloped across the trembling, cratered floor and leaped high into the air to slam her hard, heavy head into Ultra Necrozma's slender middle. Moon gaped as she heard an odd creaking noise; something like a bruise appeared, a mere golden-grey against the blazing gold-white of her skin as Hero landed with a heavy thud on the cage floor and circled back to stand at Moon's side.

A white droplet slid from the golden-grey bruise, hissing as it ran down Ultra Necrozma's leg; it dripped onto the floor and gleamed brightly for a few moments before fading to nothing.

_Why won't you just leave me alone??!?_

The cry was frustrated, aching, and broken; Moon was tired— Lillie was tired— Nebby was tired— and Necrozma was no different. “Do you remember Marshadow?” she asked.

_I told him to leave me alone_.

“He misses you.”

_He is annoying_.

Moon shook her head. “He loves you,” she clarified. “He left because he loves you. And I'm here because my friend Lillie loves Nebby— the Lunala that you're eating. I love her too, but Nebby really means so much to my friend.”

There was a long silence.

_The girl with hair like blossoms_?

White-blond with a pink streak; that sounded right to Moon. “Yeah. She loves Nebby so much that she tried to come with you.”

Another long silence, and then Ultra Necrozma, knocked down when Hero had headbutted her, struggled to her feet once more. She didn't try to fly again. _I thought I felt something on my leg. I kicked it into the void_.

“Yeah, we know.”

Ultra Necrozma took a few deep breaths. The eyes of white fire blinked slowly; gazing at Moon; but the wings lifted and flapped, and another Dragon Pulse spiraled out toward Moon and Hero. Moon rolled out of the way. “Hero, use Bulldoze!”

She reached into the knapsack, pulling Revives out and pressing them against the Pokéballs of the teammates who had been downed; they stirred back to life once more. Hero shouted with a voice of iron and earthquakes, stomping her feet; the floor of the cage shook, and Ultra Necrozma toppled sideways, landing heavily on her wing; but she turned her head and spat another Dragon Pulse, which the Metagross was unable to dodge.

Moon was ready, rising from a crouch and recalling Hero with one hand, sending out Puck with the other and pressing a fourth Revive to Hero's ball. Puck— her oldest teammate, her best friend— spread his wings high and wide, hissing and shrieking at their foe.

Ultra Necrozma sucked in a heavy, ancient breath.

Moon was still dizzy, but she twirled and spun in the steps of Never-Ending Nightmare. She forced her shaking legs to hold the ending pose long enough to scream her order.

“_Puck! Sinister Arrow Raid_!”

“_Deci_!”

It was with exhausted pride and aching joy that she watched him leap into the air, knees cutting from beneath her; she knew she would not walk out of the tower without help but that was fine. He twisted to avoid the beam of angry light; it shot past him, shattering glass and metal to rip a new hole in the cage.

Puck drew his bow. The arrows materialized out of nothing, and he shot down to slam Ultra Necrozma's head against the floor before backflipping back to Moon, owl-knees bent in readiness to attack again. The arrows rained down, more of them than she had ever seen Puck create; and they did what she had hoped, had hypothesized they would do: they pinned Ultra Necrozma down, kept her in place.

Ultra Necrozma let out a choked, keening cry; there was another blaze of light and she fell oddly, heavily silent.

Moon could not stand, so she crawled slowly across the floor. The sharp rocks and crystals from Power Gem littered the floor, as well as shards of metal and glass from where the battle had damaged the cage. Puck moved before her, sweeping things out of the way with his wings and feet.

“Thank you,” Moon whispered, turning her head to look up at him.

“Deci hoo.”

She suspected that the glimmer in his eyes meant he was close to tears, and she gave him his dignity by recalling him to his ball. There was no dignity left for herself; there was only pain and fear.

But she had lived through both of those before. Moon had survived, through pain that she had thought would kill her; and she had made it through fear that paralyzed every limb in her body. And yet that was nothing in comparison to how Lillie and Gladion had suffered at Lusamine's controlling hands; it was nothing in comparison to what Null had been through, to what Nebby had been through.

Pain and fear meant that you were _alive_; and as long as you were alive, there would also be hope.

Ultra Necrozma was gone, transformed back to Nebby-Necrozma. The neon blue was fading to a darker color; the wings were beginning to shrivel at the edges, drawing in as Necrozma burnt through the light she had eaten. Nebby had only a sliver of life left, but she was still fighting— Moon could tell, by the way the darker blue occasionally pulsed brighter in spots.

Nebby-Necrozma opened one scarlet eye to look at Moon. _Lunala and I are both dying_, she said, with vicious fatigue in each word. _Is that what you wanted, little human_?

“It's not what I want. You're the one who's refusing to let go. You could both live, if you let her go.”

_No_.

Moon sighed. She stopped crawling right by Nebby-Necrozma's forehead, folding her legs criss-cross applesauce as though she were a child in school.

“When the scientists cut you open,” she asked, “what did they take?”

A shudder racked Nebby-Necrozma's body. _Lights_, she said brokenly. _My lights, they took my lights. All I ever wanted was for them to give it back_.

Moon took a deep breath. She had waited for seventeen and a half years of her life to gain a few lights of her own; but Nebby-Necrozma had waited a thousand years.

Besides, Moon could always go back and redo the trials. Not many Trainers could say they got to do the island challenge _twice_.

She plucked Normalium Z from its slot in her Z-Ring, and pressed it against the jagged, prismatic triangle on Nebby-Necrozma's forehead. There was no glow, no reaction; but when she took her hand away, the crystal stuck.

Both of Nebby-Necrozma's eyes opened, scarlet dilating to black as it inhaled.

_What... is that_?

“I don't think they're the exact same lights,” answered Moon. “When they cut you open, it hurt, didn't it?”

_Obviously._

Was that sarcasm? Arceus fuck, she hoped it was sarcasm. If Necrozma had a sense of humor, everyone's chances of survival increased exponentially.

“It hurt so much that you accidentally opened a bunch of doors, didn't you? Ultra Wormholes?”

A long pause. _Yes_, said Nebby-Necrozma quietly. _Yes, I did. I forgot about that_.

Moon pulled Fightinium Z from her Z-Ring, and placed it next to Normalium Z. Nebby-Necrozma shivered; the deep blue pulsed a little brighter.

“I can't say for sure what happened, Grandmother,” she told Nebby-Necrozma, “but I think you lashed out and knocked all the lights out into the doors. Some of them might have gone to other places, but a lot of them landed on my world. The people who live here call it Terra. It's where you were when you ate my friend.”

_I know what Terra is_.

Next was Flyinium Z; but it wasn't on her Z-Ring. “Hang on a second— I'm not attacking you, I'm just getting another light out. Some of the people who live here told me that you used to give your crystals— your lights, to people. You gave them freely. So it probably really, _really_ sucked when some people just cut them out without asking.”

Ariel cawed sadly as Moon reclaimed Flyinium Z, but she hopped over to sit next to Moon and cooed forgiveness at Nebby-Necrozma.

_I don't understand_. The voice was a thin whisper. _I never understood. Why would they do that to me_?

A tear-bead of light rolled down from one of the scarlet eyes, splashing onto the ground the way the light-blood had done.

“They were wrong.” Moon was crying too, but she forced her voice to stay steady as she pressed Flyinium Z to the prism. “They were wrong, Grandmother. They shouldn't have done that. You have every right to be angry and hurt, but the problem was that you've been hurting everybody else— even the people who had nothing to do with taking your lights.”

Next was Waterium Z. Moon half-smiled, thinking of Lana telling her that Lillie's past contained clues. It seemed like a very, very long time ago.

Nebby-Necrozma was silent for some time; Moon added Waterium Z and was just about to place Firium Z before the voice sounded once more in her mind. _I have observed the crystals on Terra before. I thought they smelled familiar, but I did not think they were my lights_.

“They're kind of yours, and they're kind of not. They've probably changed a bit, over the last thousand years. Your lights fell onto Terra and landed in a bunch of different places. We didn't know where they were from, so we studied them and began to use them the way the people who asked you for them probably did. The lights are— they're powerful. They help people and Pokémon to become stronger.”

_I used to give my lights to the beasts as well_.

“Yeah, and I met a few Pokémon like that. They didn't belong to anybody; they lived near the crystals and became sort of... guardians, I guess. They decided who got to have a crystal, and who didn't.” Firium Z was added to the mix; she had to struggle, to be worthy of that one. It was a little more bitter to lose it, for how hard-earned it had been. “And there's other humans who work with those Pokémon and help them make that decision. The Pokémon are Totems, and the humans who help them are trial captains.”

Grassium Z reminded her of spicy soup and laughter in the jungle; she pressed it in place and Nebby-Necrozma took a deep breath.

_There are memories that are not mine, in these lights_. She sounded a little confused. _I see a man with pink hair, and a boy who worked his hardest. Something that looks like me, leaping through a meadow. A beast in a pond that tastes like fear, though I do not fear it; a sense of defeat, which is familiar but still not mine. And this one made my tongue prickle with a strange flavor_.

Moon hadn't expected this, but she knew what it meant. Ilima's smile, Hau's determination; Ten Carat Hill, Araquanid, and her first failure with Kiawe; and of course Lush Jungle. “Those are my memories.”

_Are you sure you do not mind giving them to me_?

Moon shook her head. “The crystals grow,” she explained. “The ones on Terra grow. We're never going to run out. I can always get more of them.”

It wasn't the question that Nebby-Necrozma had asked, but it seemed to accept the answer all the same. Moon took Rockium Z from its slot and pressed it in place.

_This one sings with betrayal_.

Moon winced. “I have a friend who hurt me once,” she explained. “But I hurt him, too. We love each other a lot, but that was what I felt really strongly when I got that one.”

_If he hurt you, how can he be your friend? Only enemies hurt you_.

“Oh, no, that's not true at _all_.” Next was Steelium Z. “You didn't know you were hurting your friends, did you?”

_I have no friends_.

“Wow, and I _just_ asked you about Marshadow.”

There was a long pause, and Moon took the moment to add Steelium Z to the growing mound.

_A dream on a high-up mountain_. Wonder filled Nebby-Necrozma's mind-voice. _It is... beautiful_.

Moon nodded; an ache rose to her throat and the tears welled up again; but she blinked them away. “It might take me a little longer than I thought it would, but I'll go there someday.”

Ben was holding Electrium Z, so she brought him out. He jumped onto her lap, purring softly. Moon scratched behind his ears with one hand and added the crystal to Nebby-Necrozma's forehead with the other.

_An elder protecting a youngling_. Necrozma sounded oddly small. _Letting him make mistakes... forgiving him even before he made them_.

Moon sobered, turning her Z-Ring over to take out Ghostium Z. “You hurt Marshadow, when you told him to go away.”

She set Ghostium Z in place, and Nebby-Necrozma flinched backward slightly. _Fire and noise_.

“Sounds about right. We were exorcising a mean old ghost. Well, I didn't know I was doing it, but some of my friends did.”

_How... would I go about telling Marshadow I do not want him to go away anymore_?

Moon smiled and let Hero out, to take Psychium Z and add it to the collective. “You find him and say, 'I'm sorry. Will you forgive me?' ”

_It is that simple_ _?_

“It's that simple. Marshadow will forgive you. He pretends he's dark and mysterious, but he looks too cuddly and fluffy to be mean.”

_He has always been kind... ah, this light is frustrated. There is a maze in the water._

“My friends were keeping a secret from me. It's okay now.”

Macbeth wasn't holding Buginium Z— Guzma hadn't exactly been inclined to teach Moon the dance for it, and they didn't have the time anyway— but Moon let her out on principle. Ben, unsurprisingly, scampered up into her arms. Nebby-Necrozma's eyes followed the movement.

“They're best friends,” Moon explained, before she could ask. “They love each other more than they love me.”

Macbeth made a protesting noise; but Ben's chortle sounded like agreement. Par for the course, for those two. Moon added Buginium Z.

_This is..._ Nebby-Necrozma trailed off. _This is a lot_.

“I'm going to go ahead and guess that it's Gladion. _A lot_ about sums up what was going on when I got that one.”

_Panic and anger and stubborn loyalty, all around a boy who glitters with scarlet light. I know __that__ light_. The tone was almost amiable. _I went to hunt it out, some time ago. The Terran bull-god chased me off. I do not go there anymore_.

“Yeah, he's got some kind of thing with Tapu Bulu. He won't tell me what it is. I am very curious, but I'm trying to respect his privacy. I'm not super good at that, but I'm working on it.”

_Why?_

“Because he's my friend, and I don't want to make him uncomfortable.”

She pulled Darkium Z from the ring and added it to the pile. Necrozma blinked several times.

_An old, tired man_. She made a noise that sounded a lot like a sigh. _That, at least, is familiar_.

For a few moments, Moon tried to imagine Necrozma and Nanu having a chat; the mental image this conjured for some reason depicted both of them in a cabin high on a wooded mountain, sitting in rocking chairs on the front porch. Necrozma had a shotgun leaning on her rocking chair— though how she fit into it was going to have to be attributed entirely to her drugged-out brain— and Nanu, for some reason, was knitting. She smiled.

Beady eyes watched her. _What's so funny?_

“Oh, I think you'd get along with him, that's all.”

Poisonium Z glittered purple in the sparkling, broken lights of the cage; Moon gave it away.

_Forgiveness_, said Nebby-Necrozma. _And laughter, a lot of it_.

God, she missed Molly and Rogelio. They had talked occasionally after they all made up, but Moon had often been busy with training her teammates, with trying not to cry or pee her pants every time they went across a bridge, and with worrying about Gladion and Lillie and Nebby.

“It's okay,” she told Nebby-Necrozma. “I already know I can find more of that.”

She had only just gotten Dragonium Z— good lord, that _morning_. Moon had no idea what time it was back on Earth, but if she had to guess it was probably nearing midnight. She didn't know how long she'd been unconscious when Marshadow had rescued them from the Nihilego.

_Joy and affection, again with the scarlet boy_.

Moon smiled. “Yeah,” she said softly, reaching for Puck's ball. “Yeah, that's right.”

This one hurt the most, and she wasn't sure if she would be able to get another one. Puck said nothing as she took Decidium Z from him, but his eyes forgave and loved her and Moon knew that even if he could never dance with the arrows again, this one last time had been the most beautiful. It would be enough.

“This is my last one, Grandmother,” she said, holding it up; Nebby-Necrozma's eyes followed it. “It's a little different from the others. I'm not sure how it came to be. But there are more crystals that I don't have. Hapu would have given me Groundium— and I think Mina must have Fairium. I don't know where Icium is, but I think it's got to be somewhere on the mountain. That's the only cold place in Alola. And there's some other ones— Primarium, and Incinium, and I think Professor Kukui said something about Pikanium and Eevium... and maybe Lycanium, too.” Moon sighed, and pressed Decidium Z into the mound of crystals. “It's going to be a lot of work, collecting every kind. If I promise to help you get all of them, will you let Nebby go?”

The wings had returned to neon blue, and Nebby-Necrozma seemed to be split fairly evenly, in terms of Nebby and Necrozma.

She slowly sat up, squatting on large, clawed black feet; the scarlet eyes regarded her evenly. _You want to go to the mountain_.

“That's the idea.”

_I will go there and wait. When you have found all of my lights, will you come and find me?_

“Yes. Do you not want to come and look for them with me?”

_No_. The wings bated; Nebby-Necrozma was beginning to shimmer around the edges. Moon could see Nebby beneath, with her eyes closed. _Terrans do not find my form pleasing. I would rather avoid them_.

“Oh, mood.”

_What?_

“It's a human thing, never mind.” Moon smiled up at Nebby and Necrozma. “Thank you.”

_Please— please do not make me wait too long_. Forlornity crept into her voice. _The hunger is sated for now, but it is still present. Without all of them, it may yet return_.

Moon considered. “Give me two months. Today is December twenty-seventh— might be the twenty-eighth by now.” She grinned. “How about Leap Year's? I'll meet you on February twenty-ninth.”

_Terran units of time mean nothing to me_.

“Um— I think it's like a cycle and a third, in Ultra Megalopolan time?”

_That is acceptable. I will see you then. What is your name?_

“Oh, me? I'm Moon.”

Necrozma opened her mouth, and with a flash of light Nebby twisted out of it, panting and coughing as she collapsed on the floor.

_I nearly died! That was very unpleasant, Grandmother. Thank you for spitting me out, though_.

Necrozma, brittle-black and shimmering in the broken lights, shifted her weight from foot to foot.

_I... am sorry. _Moon grinned— the old lady was learning._Will you forgive me?_

_Of course I will! I know you were just hungry. People and Pokémon are really not themselves when they are hungry_.

Something relaxed, in the set of Necrozma's shoulders. _Good-bye, Moon. And— thank you_.

The Ultra Wormhole opened and closed almost instantly, and Necrozma was gone.

Moon slid her empty Z-Ring back onto her wrist. “I'm not going to cry,” she chanted, ignoring the wetness on her face. “I'm not going to cry, I'm n-not going to c-cry—”

_You are already crying_, pointed out Nebby.

“Yeah, I know. Fuck.” Moon scrubbed at her eyes with her sleeve. “Um— okay, guys, I need you all back in your Pokéballs. We won't fit in the elevator.”

_I will fly you down_, offered Nebby. _Where do you wish to go?_

“Um, can you sense the Solgaleo or something?”

_Yes. He is very close. Do you wish to go to him?_

“Yeah. Lillie's there too, so you can, you know, say hi and stuff.”

_Oh yes!_ _Climb on climb on climb on! I want to see Lillie! She must have been so worried. I have to tell her it is okay and that she must forgive Grandmother Starlight!_

Moon chuckled, recalling all of her Pokémon, and climbed onto Nebby's back. Nebby rose, flapping her wings to gain momentum as she pushed up toward one of the holes in the cage; then they were in the lightless sky.

“Arceus fuck, I forgot I'm afraid of heights.”

_I will take you straight down, do not worry. It is like the time we fell off the bridge, but this time I will save you, instead of my cousin the Tapu. You saved me, and I will save you_.

“Goddamn it, I was trying _not_ to cry anymore!”

* * * * *

_Do not go gentle into that good night._

_Rage, rage, against the dying of the light._

* * * * *

“Nebby!”

_Lillie_!

Moon carefully opened one eye. She was about four feet above the ground and that was probably still too much, but Nebby without Necrozma did not have feet and therefore could not land. She let go, sliding backwards and down and landing hard on her backside.

“Ow.”

_You should have waited for someone to help you_, scolded Nebby; her wings were wrapped around a shaking, sobbing figure that Moon assumed was Lillie.

“Yeah. I know that _now_.”

Dulse, armed with what looked like several medtech kits, marched over to her and very gently, very firmly lifted her onto what appeared to be an inflatable pool raft that a wide-eyed Zossie slid underneath her. “You,” he said, with irritation in his voice, “are going to lie there quietly and let me work. I _never_ should have given you the field patch. Are you aware that your suit monitors every one of your vital signs and sends updates to both Lieutenant Zossie and I, _and_ Captain Phyco and Soliera?”

“I mean, kind of?” Moon sat up, watching him open one of the medtech kits.

“And are you aware that Captain Phyco and Soliera have been trying to calm two hysterical teenage boys for the last hour, because they thought you were _dying_?”

Moon winced. “Can I see your communicator?”

“_No_!” shouted Dulse. A vein throbbed in his forehead. “Communicators are for people who are at an acceptable level of healed. You are not. Lie down and do not talk to me.”

“Okay,” said Moon meekly, lying down.

“He's not really mad,” Zossie assured her. “He's just worried because he's the only one on the squad with any medical training, and savior of Ultra Megalopolis or not there's no way that the Coterie would admit you to a hospital here. They're kind of... ah, there's really not a more tactful way to say it. They're kind of racist.”

Moon snorted. “I'm half Alolan, a quarter Kantonian, and a quarter Unovan. I've dealt with prejudice before.”

“The issue isn't your regional genetic construct; you're one hundred percent _Terran_, which is more to the point.” Zossie rolled her eyes. “Politicians. Anyway, Dulse wasn't sure that he had enough medical training to compensate for the scope of your injuries. It's mostly Nihilego exposure— you weren't in as much physical contact as Lillie or Gladion, not to mention that other _idiot_ of a human; but you seem to have had very strong physical reactions anyway.”

“I think it's because I was exposed once already.”

“Correct,” said Dulse shortly, opening a jar of the orange lotion that Moon vaguely remembered Soliera using on her back at the Aether Paradise. He rolled up Moon's sleeves and began applying it to the purple stains on her wrists and hands. “Ultra Megalopolans who have been previously been exposed to Nihilego display worse symptoms if they are exposed again. The same clearly applies to Terrans.”

“Wicke and Phyco said there weren't any people who have survived a Nihilego poisoning besides me and a couple of people from Interpol.”

Dulse met her eyes evenly. “There aren't _anymore_.”

Moon shivered.

“Also,” added Zossie, “you also got knocked around a bit in that fight upstairs—”

“_A bit_!” shouted Dulse. “Do you call three cracked ribs _a bit?_”

Moon blinked. “I have cracked ribs?”

“You wouldn't have noticed, because you _took off your helmet!_ _I would have informed you that you had broken bones!_” He took a deep breath. “The suit will pressurize any area with broken bones, forming a temporary brace. If I took you out of the suit right now, believe me you would be able to tell.”

“Huh. I've never had a broken bone before. It wasn't even a cool one, like my wrist or something.”

“_Broken bones are not cool!_”

“I think she's still a little poison-high, Dulse,” laughed Zossie.

“I'm definitely still high, but the adrenaline thingy is helping me talk right now.”

“It has also sped up your heartbeat, which is not good. So maybe _you should not be talking._”

Moon took the hint, lapsing into an oddly comfortable silence. She thought about everything that had happened and decided that when they got back to Earth, she was going to need to take a long nap.

The treatment for the Nihilego poisoning was much like what she remembered from Aether Paradise. Dulse used the Bluetooth in Moon's lycra to loosen the fabric around her arms, so he could access everything that had been affected. Moon's arms, to a little past the elbows, were entirely purple; they were slathered with orange lotion, and so was her face and chin and neck. Lillie's bruises, once she emerged from Nebby's wings, had faded to soft magenta marks; her wrist was in a stiff fabric brace.

“You dislocated it, right?” Moon asked her. “Your wrist?”

“Well, Nihilego dislocated it, but yes. Dulse put it back, but it still hurts so he gave me the brace.” Lillie's eyes were warm, swimming with tears. “Nebby told me, what you did for Necrozma. All of your Z-Crystals, Moon— I can't believe you would do that.”

Moon shifted, uncomfortable. “They're a part of her,” she mumbled. “I was just— putting it back. Like gluing a bowl back together, when you break it. And I need more of them, all the ones I haven't gotten yet. I'm going to have to do all the trials again, so I can get my own.”

“I think Professor Kukui probably won't make you do that,” said Lillie rather sensibly. “He'll probably just ask all of the trial captains and kahunas to get you a replacement set.”

“That'd be nice, I guess.”

Lillie smiled. “Nebby also said you talked to her. To Necrozma, about— about healing, and forgiveness.”

Moon nodded. “It wasn't her fault,” she whispered, closing her eyes. “Those scientists, they cut out parts of her _mind_. I thought about it, and it was like— it was like Type: Null, Gladion's Null. Lusamine and Faba hurt her, and she lashed out and even killed people because she was in pain. But Gladion got her to trust him enough that she could control her anger and break her helmet. She doesn't hurt people unless she needs to. She was scared, she was defending herself. She survived the only way she knew how.” A heavy breath. “Necrozma was like that, too. She didn't know how to look for her light and heal herself, she just knew she was missing something, so she tried to find lights that would fit.” A hazy thought occurred. “I wonder... the big golden dragony thing she was, up on the tower, that's how she's supposed to be. But do you think there's a way for her to work and fuse with a Lunala or a Solgaleo _without_ killing them? I think I remember something like that happening in Unova, with all the things about the twin dragons and the empty shell one. I bet Colress would know.”

“He probably would.”

“Big golden dragony thing?” Zossie's eyes were round. “It did get very bright up there, but we thought it was just Photon Geyser like usual.”

“Is that the one where she shoots light out of her mouth?”

“Mm-hmm.”

“She did that too, but she was a big golden dragony thing for a while. Very bright, very hard to look at.”

“The Blinding One is called the Blinding One for a reason,” murmured Dulse. “But she did not remain so?”

“No, she's still the weird black buggy thing for now. But we're gonna meet up in two months and I'm going to give her the rest of the Z-Crystals she's missing.” Moon frowned. “I gotta talk to Professor Kukui. There's some specialty Z-Crystals. I gave Necrozma Decidium but I don't remember all of the crystals he talked about.”

_I have one_.

Moon jumped, surprised, as Marshadow's pleasant voice sounded in her mind; there was a rush of whispery wind, and a sweet, smoky odor filled her nostrils. She turned her head to see the little Pokémon standing next to her.

“Hi, there. Nice to see you.”

“Wow, what are you?” said Zossie, staring at Marshadow.

“This is Marshadow. He's friends with Necrozma.”

_I came back to watch and see how you would help Grandmother Starlight_. Marshadow held out one little hand and opened it, revealing a small, cyan-bronze crystal. _I picked this one up when the lights were ripped from her. It is the only one of its kind. I think it looks like me because I have been holding onto it for a thousand years_.

“Makes sense.” It clicked, in Moon's head; and it might have been a Nihilego idea but she felt coherent enough that she would remember it later. “So probably if we look for places that have high concentrations of certain kinds of Pokémon that have an associated Z-Crystal, we'll be able to find a Z-Crystal for that Pokémon? Yeah, I _definitely_ have to talk to Professor Kukui about Primarium and Incinium. And Olivia, for Lycanium. I should have pushed for three months, but I said Leap Day and now I've gotta stick to it.”

“Your heartrate is rising again. Please refrain from making plans for the future,” said Dulse, frowning at her.

“Sorry.”

_I will look out for the lights, too_, said Marshadow. _I may go anywhere I like, much faster than any of you. I will ask other beasts if they have seen Grandmother's lights anywhere. Most of them knew of her great pain, so many years ago. The scream was heard through the universe_.

His tone was conversational but both Zossie and Dulse winced. “That's one way of putting it,” murmured Zossie. “She leveled the entire city, except for the Spire and a few other buildings. Our ancestors had to rebuild. They deserved it, because they were really dumb.”

_Humans_, said Marshadow disapprovingly. _Always meddling in things they cannot control. I am leaving now_.

“Thank you,” said Moon, reaching out and patting Marshadow's head; the grey glowed cyan again, and the orange eyes deepened to bronze. “I really appreciate it.”

_I am doing it for Grandmother Starlight, but I suppose you are welcome too_.

He left as suddenly as he had come, with a ripple of shadow. Moon studied— Marshadowium? No, that was annoying. Marshium was too short. Marshadium— _much_ better. She turned Marshadium Z over in her hand a few times, before shrugging and placing it in her Z-Ring.

“We cannot do anything about your cracked ribs without going to a hospital,” said Dulse finally, taking a pair of orange-filled syringes out of the medtech kit. “And you will not be admitted to a hospital here, so you will need to go home.” He studied Moon and the syringes for a few moments, then sighed and tucked them back into the medtech. “And I should not administer the antivenom properly unless I can be sure that you are vomiting without further straining your ribs, which means you will need radiation imaging. Zossie, we will have to go with them. Moon is too weak to support herself properly in the ancient pathways, and Lillie's wrist will prevent her from supporting her in turn.”

“Oh, the Coterie's not going to like that,” said Zossie, but she was grinning. “Neither will General Heric. I've always wanted to go to Terra, though.”

Dulse's eyes narrowed, and he muttered something in the sibilant language of Ultra Megalopolis that Moon had nearly forgotten was separate from Earth-standard Kanto-Unovan.

“What did you say?” she asked interestedly.

“He said General Heric can eat a bag of—”

“It does not matter what I said.” Dulse turned to look at the Solgaleo and Nebby. “Will you each carry two of us back to Terra?”

_Of course_, said the Solgaleo. It kept twitching, eyes darting over to Nebby.

_We'd be happy to!_ chirped Nebby.

“Thank you both! We just have to gather a few more things, and probably talk to some people really quick, but then we can get going.”

“Lieutenant, may I suggest that you speak with General Heric. I need to let Mischa know that I will be away for a little while, and that anyone who enters the orchard should be chased away rather than killed outright. I'd rather not have to deal with exterminators.”

“Who's Mischa?” asked Moon.

“The nestmother who has trusted me with her care.”

“Oh, your Naganadel?”

“She is not _my_ Naganadel; but yes.”

Moon considered asking about the Poipole that Soliera had promised her, but decided that Dulse was probably annoyed enough with her at the moment so she stayed silent.

Zossie was chattering into the communicator in Ultra Megalopolan, a bright and cheerful expression on her face; the sputtering and squawking at the other end, regardless of language, told Moon that the decision to accompany Moon, Lillie, and Nebby back to Earth was not being well received. Dulse walked away from the surveillance area that seemed to have been set up in the middle of the street, walking over to a walled-off area with a gate; he let himself inside and disappeared from sight.

“Ah,” sighed Zossie, pressing a button on the communicator that cut off the yelling at the other end. “General Heric really doesn't like this. He kept shouting about insubordination charges and court-martialling, and the bleating politicians just agreed with him.” She considered this for a few moments. “Oh, well. I didn't like military service anyway. I'm only here because I was forcibly drafted due to the general Necrozma situation. I guess I'm going to be an expatriate!”

“You can remind them that they don't get Solgaleo and Necrozma back without your help,” suggested Moon. “And given that I'm going to have Necrozma hopefully cured in two months, they kind of owe the restoration of their symbolic deity to a, um, _Terran_ who respectfully requests that none of you be punished for your actions.”

“And Dulse is a doctor,” added Lillie. “Isn't he legally obligated to Moon and I, as his patients?”

“Oh, that's true!” Zossie brightened, turning back to the communicator. “Blackmail is much more of a Terran concept than an Ultra Megalopolan one. Very politically savvy of you.”

“It's actually extortion, not blackmail.”

“What's the difference?”

“Blackmail would be if you threatened to tell everyone in Ultra Megalopolis that you were going to be court-martialled for saving the world unless they promised not to court-martial you.” explained Lillie. “Extortion is just threatening not to bring Solgaleo back at all.”

“Ah, definitely extortion then.”

“Would you consider blackmail?” asked Moon, curious.

“There's not really any point.” Zossie gestured at the buildings all around them. “Everybody's inside except us. They aren't allowed to leave their homes under martial law until the military deems it safe. They still all have communicators, though; even people who don't have a good view of the Spire will have heard about the light show or seen it in a recording by now. So everybody knows that Necrozma was calmed, though they don't know how; but they're probably very grateful that she didn't blast holes in any of the streets or buildings this time.”

She began speaking into the communicator in Ultra Megalopolan once more, just as Dulse exited the walled-off area, slipping something into a pouch on his belt.

“Are we ready to go?” he asked.

“Zossie's making sure you don't all get court-martialed when you come back, but other than that, sure.”

“Good.” Dulse studied Moon for a few moments. “You and I will ride on Solgaleo. Lieutenant Zossie and Lillie will ride on Lunala. Is this acceptable?”

_Yay, I get to fly with Lillie!_ Nebby flapped her wings excitedly.

Moon grinned. “Sure, whatever works.”

“Sounds great!” chirped Zossie, slamming her hand back down on the communicator button. “I'm leaving this here; General Heric is sending someone to pick it up. We have to report in twenty-four hour time periods, as it's a Terran standard time unit.”

Moon was lifted from the inflatable air raft and deposited on Solgaleo's back; Dulse sat behind her, pulling the visor down on his helmet and muttering something about people who took off perfectly good helmets. Lillie and Zossie looked at each other for a few moments, but then Zossie smiled sheepishly before shoving Lillie on first.

“You're smaller than I am,” protested Lillie.

“You're injured and I've been in Ultra Space before,” retorted Zossie. “Let's go.”

Dulse cleared his throat, shifting in place; Moon felt a strange pinching sensation in her shoulder. “Solgaleo, please open a wormhole back to Terra.”

_As you like_.

There was no pause this time; the red-tinted wormhole opened immediately, and the Solgaleo bounded forward into the wormhole.

_Wheeeeeeee!_ cheered Nebby, which told Moon that the others were following.

* * * * *

_Do not go gentle into that good night._

_Rage, rage, against the dying of the light._

* * * * *

Perhaps it was because she had made not one but three Ultra Wormhole trips in one night; perhaps it was because she was strung out on Nihilego toxin and an adrenaline crash and whatever painkillers and antivenoms that Dulse had given Moon; but she was only vaguely conscious by the time she tasted Alola's fresh air.

“_Moon! Lillie!_”

Moon half-opened her eyes; hands gently grasped her under the arms and lifted her off Solgaleo. She was placed on a surprisingly comfortable surface— she couldn't see it but she felt like it was a stretcher— and was carried toward a loud buzzing noise.

“Will the two of you finally sit down?” demanded a brisk, familiar voice. _Pink sweater and heels_, Moon's dizzy brain conjured up; that meant Wicke but she couldn't focus on anything. “Gladion, you at the very least are in need of as much medical treatment as Lillie. And Lusamine and Guzma are both in critical condition. We need to return to Aether Paradise as soon as possible.”

“Come on, guys, let's get in the helicopter,” said Lillie softly. “Moon's in pretty bad condition. Dulse gave her a sedative right before we left, but she's been through a lot today.”

“Okay,” said a shaking voice— familiar, comfortable, home. Hau. “Okay— god, Lillie, oh my god, it's good to see you.”

“Yes,” murmured Lillie, after a few moments; Moon could hear her crying. “Yes, it is.”

_I have to go now. Alola needs my light._

“Really? The moon came back about fifteen minutes before you guys did. Everything seems okay to me.”

_I will come back. I... will meet you at the false island_.

“Are you sure?” Lillie's voice was soft. “You don't have to. I don't think I'll be there for too long.”

“You will be there for several days at least,” cut in Wicke.

_I am sure. It will be no trouble, as long as you do not expect me to go down into the darkbright rooms._

“Darkbright, huh.” A hoarse, grief-scratched voice; a hand that slipped into hers. “That's not a word, but I get what you mean. They're bright white, but the things that happened there were dark.”

“Is everyone in the helicopter who needs to be?” That was Wicke again, shouting to be heard over the buzzing. “All right, let's go!”

“Hey, Moon?”

That was Gladion again, and he sounded a little nervous so Moon did her best to slowly blink her eyes open. “Yeah?”

He was staring at her. Soliera had probably treated him for Nihilego poisoning already; the violet and magenta bruising had already faded to pinkish red.

Moon lifted her hand— the one not already entwined with Gladion's— and reached up to touch his face, the way he'd touched hers earlier.

“I'm gonna sleep,” she told him. “Be there when I wake up?”

He nodded, swallowing hard.

“Cool.” Moon closed her eyes again, slipping into blessedly velvety silence; the last thing she felt was a pair of lips, gently pressed to her forehead.

* * * * *

_Do not go gentle into that good night._

_Rage, rage, against the dying of the light._

* * * * *

Moon and co. will return in: A Bouquet in Four Parts

**Author's Note:**

> The poem is out of order for symbolic purposes but you can read the entirety of _Do not go gentle into that good night_, by Dylan Thomas, here: https://poets.org/poem/do-not-go-gentle-good-night
> 
> I am actually of the opinion that the Ultra Sea is really pretty. Imagine an open-world Ultra Sea, though; my brain equates it with the deep grand reef in the game Subnautica. The electric brain crab things could totally be related to Nihilego. They're big, ugly crabs with googly eyes and clear heads (you can see their brains) and they do electrical blasts that short out your Seamoth ship or PRAWN suit and they make shrieky noises and they scare the shit out of me, though not as badly as leviathans do... fuckin' leviathans. Pro tip, kids: if you hate jumpscares and looking into the void of the ocean creeps you out, _don't fucking play Subnautica._
> 
> I wrote Nihilego as kind of semi-cannibalistic. They prefer to eat other things, but if there are no other food sources they will prey on each other. And if there's a really easy target that smells appetizing and fresh... like a Nihilego that's been killed with a machete... well, you saw.
> 
> The original line of the poem says “father” instead of “mother”, but obviously this is way more fitting.
> 
> Lusamine's Nihilego strength-to-weakness is her pride— it can be a good thing, but it changes to vanity and arrogance. Of course, Lusamine already had those qualities too, but the Nihilego exaggerated them.
> 
> GLADION'S STRENGTH IS HIS COURAGE AND I AM YELLING BECAUSE I AM HIGHKEY EMOTIONAL ABOUT THIS
> 
> “Stop it! My perfect beasts, you're killing them! Go away, you nasty, ugly thing! I never should have created you!” —Ooh, wanna play heartbreak roulette? Guess whether she's saying this to Null... or to _Gladion._ Go on. _Guess._
> 
> I've blended some of Lillie's brilliant canon speech, about children not just being things that belong to their parents, with some of the things I wish I could say to every narcissist I've ever read about. I one hundred percent DO NOT RECOMMEND this approach with actual live narcissists. If you would like more information I recommend r/raisedbynarcissists; they will have much better advice on the topic than I do. But I'm the author, so I can make Lillie say satisfying things if I want her to. :)
> 
> Lillie's strength is perseverance, with the corresponding weakness of refusing to let go. Please hold me while I sob.
> 
> In the end they have to appeal to Lusamine's vanity to get her to admit she needs help??!??!? I don't know how I wrote that but holy shit I wrote that
> 
> Gladion being high on courage and getting all... _touchy_... with Moon and flustering her half to death is. Very Good
> 
> “The proof was in the pudding; and she was quite fond of pudding.” —in case you were thinking the adrenaline shot was a magical cure-all. no my dudes, Moon is still Very Fucking Drugged Out
> 
> Lusamine: “Why can't you just do what I want you to do?”  
Necrozma: “Why won't you just leave me alone?”
> 
> Moon using the very last dregs of physical strength to do the Z-Dance for Sinister Arrow Raid— I am: emotional
> 
> “Pain and fear meant that you were alive; and as long as you were alive, there would also be hope.” —if you are struggling, please hang on. please, please hang on. it might not be okay right now, but I promise that you will make it. all of the hurt means that you can still feel. and if you've numbed youself to it, that's okay too; it means your body and mind are working together, to make things bearable. you're going to be okay. you'll feel better soon.
> 
> Moon gave Necrozma all of her Z-Crystals. *inhales deeply* I'm not crying there's a ninja-cutting onion in here. I mean an onion-ninja cutting. I mean whatever it is people say when they want to pretend they aren't crying.
> 
> This installment in the series can be summarized as “You're not you when you're hungry. Eat a Snickers.”
> 
> Zossie: the government is not going to like that we need to take y'all home  
Dulse: the government can eat a bag of dicks because I am a MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL  
Zossie: you're literally a veterinari—  
Dulse: MEDICAL. PROFESSIONAL.
> 
> Moon and Lillie educating Zossie on the nuances of blackmail vs. extortion— Fanfiction Crack Aesthetique
> 
> why yes, I did end this with Gladion kissing Moon's forehead. why? because I am Gladimoon trash, that's why
> 
> 1/12/2020 Update: I FORGOT DARKIUM Z LIKE A DUMBASS BUT IT'S FIXED NOW


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